Sniff

Sniff

It was a welcome smell, like an old friend
come to call, he'd long forgotten.

Waves of bittersweet memory washed away
the here and now as scenes of Class 2a
floated to the surface.

He saw her now, Miss Jenkins with her flowery

skirt. The rows of guillotined sugar paper,
sequins, sweet pencil shavings, string,

and the gloopy smell of Copydex.

He remembered how perfectly the little pot fitted

his tense hand. How he lifted the brush dripping
with the glorious stuff, let it glob onto a smooth

sheet of blue, poked in his nose and sniffed

She'd put a hand on his shoulder as he worked,

"How wonderful, real promise"

The picture dried. A daybreak of concrete floor

greeted his body. He shook the can - empty.

Gluesniffer by Suzi

This was a poem written during my week at The Hurst. The exercise was to write a poem including some of the following: a childhood memory, a brand name, a metaphor, a simile, an unusual word, the past linked to the present.