Scent

If they hadn’t asked her

to smell the nice scent

all would have been well.

She had no memory 

of the operation 

when she was a baby,

before she could even speak.

She could speak now

and spoke at length

about her sore, sore throat.

That was all she remembered 

day after day.

So if they hadn’t asked her

to smell the nice scent

all would have been well.

They said her tonsils were bad

and in the hospital

they would put her to sleep 

for a little while

and take them away.

They promised ice cream after

to soothe her aching throat.

So she went to the hospital.

She went with the nurse

and saw the doctor.

They were stiff, starchy and stern

and she didn’t like them much

but she lay on the trolley when asked,

obediently.

If only they hadn’t asked her,

if only she hadn’t remembered

the scent from before.

There would have been 

no screams, no stamping 

up and down on the trolley.

The nurse would still 

have her cap on

and the doctor would have

no fist or feet marks

on his white coat,

no red hand mark

on his pale cheek.

Yes, if they hadn’t asked her

to smell the nice scent

all would have been well.

But they did ask her.

They did ask her.

The scent wasn’t nice.

She knew it.

And there was no ice cream

afterwards either.

They’d lied about that

as well.

https://www.mockingowlroost.com/blog/scent-poetry/