The Latest from Franklin

why I burn incense

the seller of scents
in the Mysore market
assured me:
only the best
sandalwood sawdust
mixed with honey
hand rolled onto
a sliver of bamboo

when I strike
a match
to make an
ember glow
on the tip
the smoke
goes straight
to my nose

inspiration is
inevitable

a poem, a song
a solution to a puzzle
a prayer
breathed out
soaring over circumstance
now can I doubt
heaven will hear

and then I inhale
again
only deeper
the seller of scents
his sad eyes
meet mine
only the best
smoke rising
in roundabout rings
spiraling
into the invisible

sooner or later
the ember is spent
the scent lingers
like hope
after a kiss


Franklin Abbott
22,23 February 2008
Stone Mountain

The market in the south Indian city of Mysore is one
of the country's most famous. Mysore itself is famous
for sandalwood and produces the best sandalwood
products in the world. The market is vast and I was
looking for a spice shop owned by the family of a friend.
He told me it was across from a perfume shop. It was
but not the one where I met the man in the picture below.
He gave me chai and told me stories, filled my nose
with one scent and another describing each as "only
the best." I bought a few vials of oil and he gave me a
bundle of incense, "only the best," he said explaining
how it was made.


www.theninthmuse.com
www.windhorserisingworkshops.com