The Liturgy of Smell by Kennedy Gisege

Poetry
36 pages
8.5 x 5.5 single signature with hand sewn binding
Published July 2016

At times lyric, at times visceral, The Liturgy of Smell transports the reader into an inmate’s day-to-day contemplations and observations of prison life. Mindful of each moment, of each minute detail, this collection explores the immediate physical world through the senses while exploring the inner world of a man.

A Day in Prison

The hallway smells like thirty years before
scented with disinfectant
that formaldehyde of the living
which reminds me
of the day about to be discarded.

Those of us
who are lost to infamy
who sing alone
like the moon and the caged birds
to no one, understand loss
more than what came before.

And when we fall in love
it's only in the night
and only to say goodbye to the day
a day we faintly remember
or years too late,
thirty years before.