Fragrance

Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash

There is a stretch of path that, this time of year, always smells completely different than the rest of the park. Something blooms so aggressively there that it knocks out even the scent or impending thunderstorms.

The last hill of the scenic loop

passes through closed forest on one side,

open golf course on the other.

Ancient and Modern looking into each other's eyes across the path.

Summer mornings,

some hidden flower of the forest side

opens and releases a gently sweet essence

in a curtain over the path.

It sits there, waiting

for us to walk through, unsuspecting,

the beauty of its unseen being.

If I paid more attention to the Ancient inside me,

I could call it by name.

It is enough to just walk through

the glorious smell of its open joy.