walking on a tree-lined street in fall

Sharisa Aidukaitis

volatile walnut molecules throw 
themselves from their ripening leaves and hulls
into my nasal passages, binding my 
olfactory receptors with precision calculated
to bring tears to my unwitting eyes—
not the onion tears of pain
or the pollen tears of histamines
or even the rose tears of being loved—
but the bittersweet tears of autumns lost
to the burial ground of nostalgia
and revived by the gasping thirst for life yet to be lived:
for apples waiting to be picked
and leaves begging to be thrown in a crinkling shower
and cool breezes still to be caught with wrinkling cheeks
for pumpkin-tinged air yet to enter humid lungs—
all of this whispered breathlessly
by a tiny organic compound encapsulating
the nearly graspable moment of the present

The Science

As humans, our sense of smell is an intricate system that allows us to interact with our environment in both a biological and emotional capacity. Microscopic volatile organic molecules in the air can enter our nasal passages and bind to olfactory receptors in our noses. Our nasal passages have hundreds of olfactory receptors, allowing for a vast array of combinations of odorant binding. Once the odorants have bound to the receptors, electric signals are sent through the glomeruli and further up through mitral cells and into the brain. The brain processes the unique input from each odorant, allowing us to recognize smells ranging from pumpkin pie to baking bread to old socks. Our sense of smell is very closely tied to our memory and emotions, allowing a single smell to transport us back to a childhood holiday, to a favorite restaurant, or to a tearful walk down memory lane that underscores the tension between the past, present, and future of our lives.

The Poet

Sharisa Aidukaitis is a writer and college educator in upstate New York. Her poems have appeared in numerous online and print publications, including Penstricken, Moss Piglet, The Quarter(ly), Drifting Sands Haibun, Sublimation, and others.

Next poem: Bubbles that kill by Kate Heaphy