Now, it is easy to forget.
Now, it is hard to remember,
Life before the burn –
These endless days of sun
Hexagonal cracks
In dust-parched soil;
In earth once tilled.

Now it is easy to forget
Yet yearn to recall –
The smell of Summer rain
Warm rain, drenching
That dust-parched soil –
Craters on the Moon
Or volcanoes, calmly waiting.

But the smell;
The smell of Summer rain
On thirsty ground
Lingers in me;
That fresh, uplifting memory –
Grass, springing back to life
The earth, breathing out…

Petrichor… flaring nostrils
Deep gulps of air,
Firing in my brain –
New life, new beginnings.