AN ALBUM WILL REMEMBER

scents that bring back memories

[Unperfected]

Inhale the scent of this old book

Its scents remind you of a sunlit forest

Of a cedar tree by a small brook

Breathe in the musky scents of the thesaurus

An old dictionary you would pretend to read

When you were yet young and unschooled

When you were still a seedling from a small seed

Chasing butterflies unlike the schooled

Don't you remember?

Walk down the streets as it rains

There are 7 years jingling inside you

Walk down the dusty lanes

The sidewalk a dark gray blue

The dust rises as the rain falls

Breathe in the dusty rain

Then you hear your mother scold and call

For you shouldn't walk in the rain

Don't you remember?

Scribbling on a piece of wrinkled paper

With crayons, red and blue

On the corner you draw a truck over a skyscraper

And another of a balloon that flew

You press your face against the scribbles

Scribbles that you believe is a masterpiece

It smells like candles and wax, the scribbles

And when you taste it tastes like a disease

Don't you remember?

Imagine a cold day in December

Cold snow dusting over your eyelashes

You are beginning to miss Summer

Only when Summer's fire had become ashes

Ashes called Winter snowflakes

You pass the bakery and watch with envy

As you pass a window displayed with cornflakes

As you watch the baker called Henry

Pass our cakes and cookies

Cakes with such a sweet, yeasty aroma

In the bakery with such nice goodies

Such a heavenly, mouthwatering aroma

Don't you remember?

Don't you remember of the scents that bring back memories?

Of peppermint sticks on Christmas, of fresh baked bread,

Don't you remember the musky scent of the forest and trees?

Of the old books and the yellowed pages that your mama read 

To you when you were too young to know the meaning of the words

Of the ocean wind laced with salt and seaweed

Of the gasoline smells as your father passes a gas station around the curb

Remember the time when you agreed

To play hide and seek in the attic

And there you found some moth balls and you thought it was for moths to feed

Remember the time around a fire, your father's jokes loud and dramatic

And you didn't watch you marshmallow and it burned

But you believed it was a perfect marshmallow

Even though it smelled like darkened toast and so burnt

Remember smelling paint when your sister wanted to paint her room pink

And you wanted to paint yours blue

Remember when you made everything a messy stink

A dreadful smell of paint caused by you

Don't you remember the scents that make you remember?