Do you ever notice the way that certain scents, movements, actions can transport you back in time to a particular place or memory? I’m transported vividly back to the ornate mustard-hued apartment in a Palazzo in Venice whenever I inhale Ralph by Ralph Lauren, certain yoga poses have somehow become connected with memories of university, of an airport in Rome, of a case I worked on when I was a lawyer. It endlessly fascinates me how these things are seemingly randomly connected. I notice these experiences, collect them, turn them over in my hand to observe them. Taking photos is another fascination of mine – amassing moments and memories to relive and treasure again later.

The cool, heady scent

pulls me

hurtling through 

timezones and eras

back 

to the city of bridges

to the strains of a

melancholy opera

caressing the shimmering

cobblestones

…

Smooth movements 

trembling positions

As I tilt my face towards

the hint of sun

revisiting memories

conversations

places that 

attach themselves

cling invisibly to

the arc of my body

…

The jolt of the 

shutter, the eye

springing shut

capturing the movements

frozen, the moments

finite now made

timeless

a portal beckoning

connecting us

forever to the 

past

This post is inspired by the Five Minute Friday writing challenge. Each week I join with this talented group of writers, free writing for five minutes in accordance with a prompt. Today’s prompt is ‘collect’.