Salem Smells

It smells like the seasons.

Blossoms bursting through in the spring. Freshly cut grass and cookouts in the summer. Crunchy, wet leaves in the fall. Snow washed air and fireplaces in the winter.

It smells like a work in progress.

Dusty dirt and freshly poured concrete mixed with sweat and exhaust fumes.

It smells like food.

Sweat smells of pastry at Ziggy’s and AJ King’s. Coffee brewing at Jaho’s, Front Street, Dunkin’s and Starbucks. Bacon outside of Red’s.

It smells like the neighborhoods.

Low tide and periwinkles at Collins Cove. Pizza, popcorn and Chinese at the Willows. Coffee shops and restaurants downtown. Salty air, charcoal cooking and incense wafting around Pickering Wharf.

It smells bad.

Like skunks and garbage cooking in 90 degree heat waves.

I think of all this as I follow my sense of smell while I run through a still sleeping, slightly dark city.
I remember a high school science teacher who once explained that the reason we smell is because molecules of the substance have lodged themselves in our nasal cavity, which begged the overused insult “you have farts in your nose!” which I admit still makes me chuckle.

I think about distinct vacation smells- wild rosemary and thyme bushes in Arizona, moss in Savannah, pastry in Paris, lattes in Rome. I think about other smells like new babies and wet puppies pretty sure I could identify all of them blindfolded, as I wonder what a world without scents would be like.

I huff and puff my way back home thinking I’m the most creative person in America, if not the world.

“Did you know Salem smells?” I ask.

“So do you.” Is the answer.

And so I do.