Familiar fragrances

Some memories are stowed away in photo albums.
Some play in songs heard one too many times.
And some others waft in air through familiar fragrances.

The smell of wet earth after a rain is an aroma infused
with a thousand tales from monsoons of the past.
The smell of fresh jasmine and incense, sounds the bells of the temple
A rush of nostalgia sets in with one whiff of these familiar fragrances.

Take a breath. Make a memory.
And just like that you've thrown a message in a bottle into the water.
Years fly by and you find yourself walking new shores
 only to stumble upon that bottle and you uncork it to momentarily relive an era that passed.
All through a familiar fragrance.

And as I open my mother's perfume cabinet I find myself walking out onto a private beach.
There lie a hundred bottles peeking from the sand.
The messages encased in these bottles are memories from different periods in my life.
I shake the last vestiges of perfume in the older bottles.
Memories come to life in these familiar fragrances.