Smell the coronavirus

Reports indicate that the loss of smell and taste is an early indicator of an COVID-19 infection.  We take our nose and tongue and everything else for granted, until we find out that there is something wrong.  Such is life!

The poem "Smell of things to come" now comes across as an eerie omen about the novel coronavirus.  It is a poem by Vijay Nambisan, my old childhood friend and school-mate.

In his memory, and with April being poetry month, here is Vijay's poem:

Smell of Things to Come

By Vijay Nambisan

A nose is a nose is a nose. Who knows
Those fibres of smell better than I? The scent
Of a book that grows on me, of a rose
Withered by fondling, of newsprint, of drink
Untasted but soon to be consumed, of course
I know them all and know too the gross
Odours of unwashed flesh, of dirt
Shed or retained by skin, and I know almost
The scent of love, because sometimes it flows
Between breast and breast, and my nose
Has nestled there.
     When blows the wind above
My senses, I have smelled the clouds grow
Against the sky. One scent remains to know,
The last breath I shall ever take as I.

Vijay's photo in the 1971 annual school magazine.