A Scent of Beauty

By:      Barney Shepherd

Did you ever stop to ponder,
            The trail your own nose chose,
While chasing the aroma
            Of your honeysuckle rose?
Son, you would have missed her
            Without your sense of smell
And things back then, would not have been
            With that dark eyed southern belle!

Now, I don’t go “round sniffing things,
            Not by any means.
But, I’ve been known to lift the lid
            Off a pot of pinto beans.
I’ll even admit to falling,
            Doing injury to myself.
While sniffing out an apple pie
            Way high, upon the shelf.

I actually got a buzz on, once.
            From a big old pot of glue.
Pasting cut out paper dolls
            While helping sister Sue.
I even took a nap or two
            On a lazy, hazy day.
Doped up on dried up sunshine
            In a pile of new mown hay!

I hardly ever, turned things down
            For how they looked or felt.
But, I’ve cast aside a lot of stuff
            For how the damn thing smelt.
The best scent in this whole wide world
            Your nose just cried for more.
Was that patchwork quilt of odor
            In Letch Weaver’s Country Store!

Sometimes in the springtime
            When you stop and stand real still.
You catch a whiff of apple blooms
            From the orchard on the hill.
You just keep on a hoein’
            And smell that fresh turned ground
And realize that, sometimes,
            The scent outscores the sound!

There is not much said ‘bout odor
            In the scripture books I’ve read.
But, I’ll betcha, up in heaven
            There’s a lot of good cornbread.
Just outside those pearly gates
            You’ll get a big long smell
So follow it to heaven, son
            Or, you could wind up in hell!

We think about the things we see.
            Also, the things we hear.
But, the aromas and the scent of things
            Don’t seem to be so clear.
As I said in the beginning
            ‘Tis what your own nose chose.
But, a blind man finds the beauty there