True Grace

Dorota thinks I tell myself sad stories about my life
to feel sad
and then feel sad
and then believe it’s true
vindicating the validity of the stories
As if there is a sadness room
among all the rooms in the house
that is called my life
where I’m determined to stay
ignoring the ways out
But there are ways out
she says
if you want to be out
one of which being sensory stimulation
Get yourself an essential oil
inhale when you feel sad
stuck, lonely, collapsing
/
As it should be
I listen to Dorota
and I was on my way
to the insufferable Oxford Street
in search of the perfect scent
I put my nose on the neck of the diffuser bottles
and sniffed
I sniffed and sniffed and sniffed
one after another
then another
and another
I had sniffed most of them
before I found the one
“A classic exhilaratingly herbal mixture of woody rosemary with earthy and fresh eucalyptus”
Like an old wooden closet in a country house
in the middle of a woodland
air brisk and wet
The brand is called True Grace
with the stem of “T” cutting all the way through “G”
looking, smelling
truly graceful