Fragrance And Memory

remembering
the air




I smell
memory, 
childhood 
and youth, 
family and 
birth in 
dampened 
dust of  
earth's  
trodden path,
at once 
wonted and
cryptic;


I feel wind 
and breeze,
middle to 
not so 
middle-age,
my face a 
rampart to
gales stirring
before me, 
the past 
bereft: 


these are 
visions preceding
each ancient
footstep, 
never unknown,
always 
portent to 
each next 
breath. 






Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken by R. Baker July 20, 2012, Ontario State Parkway, Kendall, New York.