Time's Smoky Trail

The wiff of a bold smell

Whirls me back to younger days

filled with 

crisis, torment and homesickness

where smoke burned

more valiant and bold,

unapologetic to

a nation’s survivalist nature

that singes toxins in the air

Instead of hiding them

in landfill dumpsters

This part of my brain

opens up gateways 

of a soothing knowing,

telling me

I’ve been carried

along this trajectory of time,

relatively unscathed,

among dialogues and circumstances
with people

I no longer know,

remember or

prefer not to have known.

I can’t escape

Time’s eternal reminders 

when they show up

uninvited

on a late summer’s day walk.