Age and smell?*

Hi Dear

I hope I don’t smell…?

Of say

Wee & shortbread biscuits

Bonfire smoke and naphthalene.

Old garages

Coal Tar Soap and creosote

Dust and peppermints

Being discriminated against on the grounds

Of smell or discreetly by others just on Age

Is bad enough

I’m not a Heritage building

Or something the Detectorists found

I’m a bouquet of sweet memories

There’s a poem here somewhere?

I need one for this week….

(Nick will be waiting!)

I want to smell of sex and the Tropics

Books, pineapple and the sea breeze.

I want to smell of pleasant things in a

Noel Coward lyric

A swathe of dry grasses in a Georgia O Keefe

Painting

A nose full of a lover’s hair in the morning.

Oh well if one is not there already

A smell that is!!!!

Not like something that died under

the floorboards weeks ago.

Then I’ll settle for Jasmine in the evening.

Prefably in Capri

‘Don’t worry dear’.

“Looks like I will have to feed you more mushrooms, especially shitake and oyster ones. Luckily they sell them in Asda. Ha Ha Emoji

You smell nice. You smell like you. Warm and cuddly, safe and loving. xxxxxxxxx”

.

Malcolm Paul
Picture Nick Victor

*Our skin’s natural antioxidant defences decline with age.This results in increased oxidation of skin lipids production and the production of 2 -nonenal,a byproduct of the breakdown of omega 7 fatty acids on the skin’s surface.
Mushrooms are packed with amino acids ergothione,a powerful antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties that stops lipid peroxidation before oldie odor can accumulate.

New York Post.20/6/25

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