PUPPY PERFUME
by April Halprin Wayland
It’s powdery—
cotton candy and dust
from a carnival midway
It’s musky—
leaf litter
of an old oak grove
It’s all mixed up—
crackers and
couch pillows:
your own furry fragrance
your downy dogness
as I burrow into you each morning.
(c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved
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The story behind the poem:
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I like to start my day by burrowing my nose into Eli’s neck, hugging his big dog-self. It’s a soft way into the day. This morning I noticed how nice he smelled. Then I tried to put words around it. As I wrote this poem, I kept going back to Eli and hugging him, inhaling and trying to “get” what the smell was like. What did it remind me of?
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As one of my dog park friends, James, said, “Humans are visual. We don’t have words for smells because we don’t use our nose as dominantly as we use our eyes.”
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Now it’s your turn: find a smell you’d like to write about. Take it in. Close your eyes. What does it remind you of? Write a poem.
- Eli & Elsie…”How do you do?”
or maybe, “How do you smell?
