This poem is true of me. Without disclosing details of the incident itself I will say that after a serious bang to the head around two and a half years ago I have no sense of smell. Due to the fact that it is a brain trauma it will never return.
I can see and I can hear
I'm lacking in sense of fear
But it exists when I'm up high
When I'm scared 'cause I can't fly
My sense of touch means I can feel
When wounds hurt and when they heal
You can hurt me physically
You can hurt me emotionally
Yet smell you I cannot
It's a sense my brain forgot
The tissue's swollen on my brain
I will never smell again
Smell has made it's wedding vows
Liives with taste in sensual house
Taste is widowed by smell in me
It's there... but not wholly
So I tell you of my senses three
And a fourth that is there partly
But I am absent a whole
Smell no longer has soul
My sense of smell has deserted me
Poignant - life has such a menu of potential losses. I'd like to see this developed further as prose if you can. (I mean if you can emotionally - I'm confident you have the ability.)
ReplyDeleteinteresting...losing the sense of smell would be a painful blow to me...though i can think of none of the senses i would want to give up...
ReplyDeleteI like the sing-song rhyme of this. I guess if I had to choose one to lose, my sense of smell would be it (does it affect how things taste?)
ReplyDeleteI like poems that share personal truths, such as this one. It is sad to have lost the sense of smell. So much anticipation of a meal comes from the smells of the food.
ReplyDeletethe same happened to my mom - she fell on her head and the sense of smell never returned - and you only realize how helpful it is when you have it no longer
ReplyDeletethere are some benefits to this ;) i'm sure you see the world in a new way and make the most of it...
ReplyDeleteyour poem has a smooth tone to it, light and easy to follow despite of its content, a loss. I agree with some of the comments mentioned here, that if I have a sense that I could choose to lose, then it would be smell. Having said that, I don't want you to feel that I'm underestimating the tool this has I'm sure taken on you. Smell, just like any other sense, is linked to memory, especially memory from childhood. I would be very sad if I can't smell certain things from my childhood that brings wonderful memories. Thank you for sharing this and reminding us what we have.
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