“Olfactory Life”

For most today (and yesterday for us),
“Olfactory” was background – part of muss
Of agriculture-life as lived by most –
The excrement and sweat of tea and toast.

But even in the realms of upper class,
One bath a week was standard – lad and lass
The final ones to cycle water through –
Cold, dirty baths were part of world we knew.

The animals lived in with kith and kin,
’Till slaughtered, shared with group we lived within;
Consumed as fast as possible, for rot
Set in at once – which, added with the slops –

Made even more dimensions to the smell,
With puss-infected wounds, for war is hell;
Then menses, vomit, snot – our bovine life
Not far from that of prodigal in strife.

We left our trees and caves for open plains,
But smells continued very much the same;
I know – for I recall that as a child –
Those smells which absent have been all this while.

Lord, being thrust back into world I knew,
Like dad said of his trip – “So very few
Are up above the squalor’s stinking mess –
How privileged we are, I must confess.”

Like him, O Lord, I doubt she could abide
Such misery, were we to take a slide
Into such realms, to live out life that way –
In shorter, brutal lives – as author says.

How soft we are – survival skills laid by;
These four-score years and ten we have survived
Midst given-life of privilege for us,
While others on the planet bide the muss.

“Noblesse oblige” was term from days of yore;
“A mess we leave behind on distant shore”,
Is what new people say as they embark
On this Titanic’s voyage with new start.

Lord, what I hear is, “Some survived that wreck,
Just like past epidemics, wars, so heck –
Just carry on, and later cross that bridge,
When it appears, and world its excess rids.

“Live out each day in Me; do what you can;
With heart, soul, mind, and strength, now lend a hand;
Add to life’s aggregation of the good
To fullness of the parts you’ve understood.

Lord, thanks for this – for lifting eyes to see,
That here on in, is, “That some others be
Enriched by treasure gathered to this date;
Passed on for others’ use – for Heaven’s sake.

Thanks Lord for this.

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