Navigation by Scent

from Mother Poems and A Crack in Time by Shambhavi Sarasvati at Kindred108.love. We're all kindred here.

Northern California hills in summer

Navigation by Scent

These late days
my skin smells of roses
when nothing in me is constrained or
out of place.
So different from the
fenugreek, sea, sugar
skin of youth.

I’ve navigated life
by the scent of every house and room
smells of illness or an open heart
of disappointment
nervousness 
and rage.

The banquet of morning and wet pine
layered scents in a crowded place
perfumes of life that spread
or clear or sit heavy on the mind
or like cannabis
that cling and coerce

I told my landlord:
The cedar in the yard smells like California.
The kitchen's reclaimed wood
smells clean and like
a magically bigger space.

These scents are memorialized:
people pretending to be someone else
drips of gasoline
East Bay golden hills in summer
eucalyptus trees baking in the sun
mugwort
saffron
agar
cardamom, freshly ground
helichrysum
jasmine
all the smells of God

Also airports
baby hair
distant musk
deep inside the spines of books
old art deco roadside motels 
unwashed sheep's wool
the purest milk
and transmission fluid leaked
in the manifold
and burning

from Mother Poems and A Crack in Time by Shambhavi Sarasvati

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