How you’ve risen up the ranks
of smells in our lives
to become number one
in our memories of 2020

We don’t dare enter our homes
the local supermarket
even the grog shop
without a brush with your pervasive scent

Once a bar of Sunlight soap
was all that was needed
to keep us and our clothes
immaculately clean

Shampoos conditioners
are all the go these days
even young men spray their armpits
with terrible smelling chemicals

There was a time
that still lives for me
when natural body odours
we’re the powerful aphrodisiac

What’s the first thing a dog
will do when he meets a new friend
and so many animals
leaving their scent at the base of a tree

But no, this year at least
we’ll have the scent
of unpleasant hand sanitisers
up our nostrils!

Personally I prefer
the smell of the salty air
by a beach
the umami of the scent
of seaweed washed up