Chasing The Muse
Since 1987

Rich Le Cropane is a repurposed Navy brat who makes his living writing computer software. While he has dabbled in writing for human consumption since his teens, he began to develop his craft in earnest only after his wife suggested that he "shut up and start typing, already." When he's not bossing computers around, he writes short stories and light verse, and rearranges the outlines of two novels he has in the works. Rich lives in Oswego with his very understanding wife and a brace of uppity cats.

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Smells Like Memory

by Rich Le Cropane

Though every sense that I possess is working fairly well,
My memories are indexed by a lively sense of smell.

Matches smell like nightfall, and Laundry smells like sleep,
And Coffee smells like morning with no promises to keep.

Crayons smell like grade school and my box of forty-eight,
While Lemons smell like summer and a Sun that stays up late.

The Ocean smells like jellyfish and half-remembered pain,
While the Tribune smells like Sunday and a forecast threat'ning rain.

Cardboard smells like moving, my possessions packed and shipped,
And Pizza smells like college, and another due date slipped.

Scotch smells like philosophy, and Roses smell like May,
And Wool smells like my father coming home from far away.

But when I'm walking with my dog, 'neath skies of purest blue,
I'll stop, and stoop, and fill my bag, and think, my dear, of you.

Copyright © 2006 Rich Le Cropane