Olfactory Sight

Tonight
it was the bridal wreaths
that popped some brain cells in me
The aroma first
and then those white abundant blossoms
They are here in an old part of this old town
And they remember Grandma
Their odor in me
recalled Grandma's crocheted table cloth
her chocolates
the chewy edges of her apple pies

This evening the space-time continuum knit together
by memories of a long gone hometown
Memories of a woman I only knew as elderly
and the one who smiled goodness all round
Her end is writ large in my cells too
with her frailness still living
and her cancer still wearing

Those images encroach into my now immediate space
I absorb with openness and lack of dread
Not yet ready to join Grandma
Not yet ready to become enrichment
for the roots of plants

Considering, though,
Knowing what probabilities and ends there can be
Bridal wreaths bulging the vase on Grandma's table
Taken inside her house from the curtained front window

I'm still outside that window
looking in as did the wreaths of years ago
Knowing that someday I'll enter too

G.J.G. 6/2/90

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