I am eight,sitting on wet grass in a swimming suit,I have the garden hose in my little fist directing it at my sister,who gleefully laughs,my swimming suit is orange,I dislike it,I bought it in Saint Malo at Leclerc in a summer holiday when i sadly realized I had left my real one at home.It is one of those days when the sun is glaring from the cloudless sky and you only see tiny yellow dots in front of your eyes when you go inside your home "cave" after being out for too long,my father gives us cold "lassi" we drink with straws because it tastes better slurped,suddenly the sky darkens and you feel a foreboding,the first drop of rain you catch on your hand as if it has fallen just for you to receive it,you look down on the rain- dappled ground,the asphalt courtyard is turning a darker shade now,I touch it with my feet and stretch out my arms because my mum told me rain water is beneficial for the skin- i can’t yet confirm it yet can’t deny it neither- and in that moment i sense it.Petrichor.
I found its name years later when I was browsing through my second hand Webster dictionary for a school assignment.
I smelled it before,I felt it before,I sensed it before…but only ever then did I know that my favorite feeling in life had a name.
Mar 30
Mar 30, 2026 at 8:48 AM UTC
I am eight,sitting on wet grass in a swimming suit,I have the garden hose in my little fist directing it at my sister,who gleefully laughs,my swimming suit is orange,I dislike it,I bought it in Saint Malo at Leclerc in a summer holiday when i sadly realized I had left my real one at home.It is one of those days when the sun is glaring from the cloudless sky and you only see tiny yellow dots in front of your eyes when you go inside your home "cave" after being out for too long,my father gives us cold "lassi" we drink with straws because it tastes better slurped,suddenly the sky darkens and you feel a foreboding,the first drop of rain you catch on your hand as if it has fallen just for you to receive it,you look down on the rain- dappled ground,the asphalt courtyard is turning a darker shade now,I touch it with my feet and stretch out my arms because my mum told me rain water is beneficial for the skin- i can’t yet confirm it yet can’t deny it neither- and in that moment i sense it.Petrichor.
I found its name years later when I was browsing through my second hand Webster dictionary for a school assignment.
I smelled it before,I felt it before,I sensed it before…but only ever then did I know that my favorite feeling in life had a name.
How I encountered petrichor
Request permission to use this poem