Staccato anthology of dreams.

*

As soon as I enter I become aware of the dog smell that fills the house. A hot concentrated odour that's different. Warm, sweaty, meaty, vinegary all at once. I wrinkle my nose not sure if I like it but unable to dislike it either because it smells so natural.

*

Hers is a strange face- at once young and old, firm and withered. Wrinkles fan out from her nose to the edges of her lipsticked mouth, spread along the sides of her cheeks and down her neck, making the still young cheeks look like islands in a choppy sea. She waits, hand on hip. 'Have you finished staring at me? Or is the menu written on my face?'

*

I like to watch the office crowd go by. Standing by the street, I suck in the air of their worlds- The dry metallic smell of the air conditioning, the salty smell of dried perspiration, coffee, cigarettes and then something I do not recognize. It brushes ever so slightly against the nostrils, so fine and delicate that it is hard to pin down. The people don't notice my quivering nostrils, and even if they do, they don't care.

I long to make myself a part of them. To wrap myself in their arrogance, my feet keeping time with theirs. To me, they seem like gods, and I long to be as invulnerable as they are.

*

I held the glass beneath my nose and pulled the fumes straight up my nostrils. The wine smelt sweet and spicy, like cinnamon and nutmeg, and sour and earthy. There was also a slight hint of chalk that hung back, almost out of sight. The smell filled my nostrils, delicate but well formed like a gazelle.

Then I took a sip.

The wine slid across my tongue like oil, and slipped effortlessly down my throat. Underneath its silky coat I could feel the muscle that held the various elements of it together. The smell gathered force after I had swallowed it, the warm juices that had been hiding beneath my tongue rushing into it., lifting it up and warming it so that the fumes rose to my throat, and once again, climbing up the dark nasal tunnels to my brain. I sad nothing and slowly took another mouthful.

Excepts from Smell.
-Radhika Jha.
(She's brilliant)