We have five million smell-sensitive cells in our nose, [animals] have two hundred and fifty million - they can smell emotion. They can smell different types of emotion, they just have another type of intelligence.
~Mike Mills
Happy Poetry Friday! I considered a bunch of poems to share, but they were a bit more serious than I wanted. Maybe because Ariana's medicine was *finally* approved today?! It was a long wait!
So I rummaged through poems I'd written during Laura's February project and found one about noses.
Could you smell this?
Does this smell bad, he asks,
passing me a container of salad dressing.
I hesitate, anticipating a
rancid blast,
but
it's fine.
We play "does this smell bad"
like kids during recess,
not to say with joy,
but with regularity
because his nose checked out
of the smelling business,
turned in its detection license,
closed up the sniff shop,
long enough ago
that I've had a chance
to figure out
what's that smell
is this fresh
is something burning
does this stink
is this spicy
did it mildew
& the fundamental
question:
is this still good?
************
P.S. Not being able to smell IS serious, but most of the other poems I'd read were by Sudanese poets so this one felt relatively light.
Karen Edmisten has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Karen!
Tabatha, I'm so glad the medicine was finally approved. Relief. My husband and I were recently talking about people whose noses have:
ReplyDelete"...checked out
of the smelling business,
turned in its detection license,
closed up the sniff shop"
There can be some serious dangers lurking, so I'm glad you are there to be his backup sniffer.
Your poem makes total scents, Tabatha. ;)
ReplyDeleteYay for Adriana's medicine approval!
Interesting poem; great opening quote! Yes, noses and the sense of smell are very important. Len says I have exceptional olfactories. :)
ReplyDeleteTabatha--lovely to read one of your own poems this week! And so happy that your daughter's medication was approved! Happy dancing :>)
ReplyDeleteHa! This is a very serious condition as smell helps us survive--but your added just enough comedy for me to laugh, ha! with your last line. What an interesting life you live, Tabatha!
ReplyDeleteHOORAY for movement on the medication!!! I believe I missed this poem during a February, and how I love it. Yes, this is still good.
ReplyDeleteI loved this poem in February, and I still love it now! (My prompt, for the win!! :-)
ReplyDeleteAgreed - love reading one of your original poems
ReplyDelete(smells sweet to me!) and since I missed Ariana's, I enjoyed (with frustration for her and you all!) reading her clever and ridiculous-because-it's-true found poem. So glad to hear the medicine she needs finally got approved. Good grief!
I'm so thankful she's getting her medicine, finally. And we're thinking a lot about Sudan here too (a near neighbor). Thanks for your smell poem. I just said to my husband this morning that I don't know how he can have such a bad sense of smell. I get all the delights of the rotten smells and he's oblivious!
ReplyDelete"Long wait" seems like an understatement on the med! Wow. Beyond frustrating. I'm so glad she's finally getting it!
ReplyDeleteHad to laugh at "closed up the sniff shop" ... I have a similar dilemma and have a hugely diminished sense of smell (after a sinus infection about 25 years ago.) It stinks. (Though *I* can't detect the stink.) :D
Not being able to smell is no joke, but you made me laugh anyway! I'm glad your daughter's medication was approved.
ReplyDeleteAww, I like how you put a positive scent on something so serious. I was just studying about Lesser long-nosed bats and had to laugh because I was expecting quite a long nose and found it's all relative. I think these mammals pretty much dive headlong into night-blooming cacti, tongue, nose, face, and all.
ReplyDeleteYay for Ariana’s medicine approval!!! I remember and enjoyed your olfactory poem, thanks for sharing it again!
ReplyDelete