On Picking Herbs before the Storm

Time has a smell
when it holds fast,
spinning in place with no advance.
It is the scent of concentration,
when outward turns inward
and motion is slowed into
a thickness of feeling.

Somewhere within that
though, I learned from the loose
attentive, herbal, allure 
of basil, and mint, and green’s own thyme—
Incense and prayer,
Incense and prayer,
Let it breathe, let it scent, let it soothe.

Kimberly M. King