Today’s poem is from Earthly Matters: biology & geology poems, published by The Poets Union.

Annamaria Weldon

Petrichor

Petrichor, scent of first rainfall on rock,
sedge, sand and trees along this salt-marsh shore
of flooded gums, layers of eucalypt
oil rinsed free releasing its high-pitched tang.

Lower, sultry odours of soaked bark, full
throat-catching cyanobacterial earth smells,
musty geosmin’s dark undertones, bank
down the metallic blare of rainstruck stone.

Primal, familiar aromas drone deep
in substrata where soon, lichen and moss
will cast on silent stitches to knit pelts
like coloured maps spread across the wetlands.

Petrichor, nature’s soundless mating call
promises new forage. In leaf litter or soil,
seeds and spores stir. Senses, tuned to shifts
of season, lift. Life turns to life and earth
rises like a lover to meet the falling rain.