Remembered Fragrance

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Delicate and sweet as Chinese

wind chimes to the ear, remembered

fragrance can conjure those images

long lost to time. . .

 

Jasmine adrift on night wind —

the way magnolia hangs, heavy

in the grey dawn, or from dark

closets, faint and haunting, a hint

of cedar, sandalwood or rose.

 

A woman brushes near, and drifts

of perfumed air stir sharp fragments

of youth’s old longings —

that crushed gardenia on a prom dress,

love notes sprouting violets,

and oh! those walks in autumn’s mist.

 

Wet leaves spreading a sponge underfoot,

earth-mold pungent in the cool damp —

illusive now her beauty, faded

by years, but the scent she wore

                        remembered forever.

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