If Home Was A Smell

If home was a smell
It would smell like aftershave and peanut butter and jam
It would smell like
Spices, sweet and salty; taste buds ringing
It would smell like
The tea tree oil range from The Body Shop
And notes of milk tea with Flaming Hot Cheetos finger dust and fairy lights
Home would be hardcover books and new paper and pens
It would smell like oud; greenish in nature
And apple juice – fresh hot naan
Home is ice cream after school
It would smell like my mother’s cooking and my father’s arms
My brother’s strong perfumes
It would smell like Herbal Essence shampoo
Rose water and cherry blossoms
A hint of fried oranges and black pepper pear slices
Nauseating sheer qorma and Eid prayer
It would smell like sweat and skin and blue candy – strawberry cheesecake and bons bons
It would smell like freshly baked bread with some butter
Industrialization and claustrophobia
Home would be mango shakes and kulfi
It would smell like fresh grass and earth
It would smell like yellow paint and petrol and cement after rain
Home would smell like home

Zaynab Akbar
(C) All Rights Reserved. Poem Submitted on 09/07/2020

Poet's note: i wrote this imagining the things i would smell at my house. my mom's cooking, my dad's aftershave and countless other things which take me back to where i am at my most peaceful.
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