Perfume

my Dad loved perfume
love is not too strong a word
although the perfume often was
he liked the perfume counter in,
shopper's drugmart, the bay,
eatons-indiscriminate really
he was happiest in his own bouquet
of scents sprayed rapidly mixed together
exclaiming 'beautiful, ah beautiful'

i think, thinking back
from this adult perspective
he had unfortunatly had the opportunity
of smelling bad smells
sad smells
stenches of death

in this new north american life
he found a more pleasant nosegay
sweet smells
security
family
love
and of course, the opulent perfume counter
he didn't get into detail
about the past

but once remembered
a happy time too
a tea cup i had
full of a popourri
called
spring rain
(the photos destroyed, the memories not)
this is my holidays
my summer holidays
an inn, in childhood
that was sweet smelling
before the stench

an olfactory sandwich
in which the bread of it
sweetly perfumed