Poem Toward an Aroma Map of New York City

[After a recent trip to New York City, I tried to recall the odors I experienced as I walked from Grand Central Station east to Junior’s Restaurant in Brooklyn. In looking up previous attempts to do such things, I’m struck by the omnipresent dismay at the odors New Yorkers, especially Manhattanites, seem to experience. Notably, the effort has not been made in poetry. For myself, having been away from the City for decades, the scents were almost uniformly comforting. I walked the four mile route at least partly because I felt at home and wanted to reconnect with my home base of many years ago.]

 

Grand Central Terminal:

Diesel, oil, steam, human piss, perfumery scent

Park Avenue:

Carrot cake, hot pretzels, ditchweed, spiced halal meat

Union Square:

Ditchweed, roast lamb, hot coffee

Bowery:

Better cannabis, piss, coffee, damp wool, hot pork

Chinatown:

Vinegar, sweet coffee, steaming rice, strong herbs

Manhattan Bridge:

Wildfire Smoke, salty water, cannabis, coffee

Dumbo:

Coffee, cannabis, spiced meat, mixed Chinese herbs

Jay Street:

Exhaust, dust, piss

Walt Whitman Park:

Take out coffee, cannabis, yew pines

Tillary Street:

Hidden beer, coffee, dogs, scent

Flatbush Avenue:

Hot pretzels, cannabis, exhaust

Juniors Restaurant:

Percolating coffee, good beer, warmth, fresh Cole slaw, hot beef