Phantosmia (A Scent of Smoke), a song

About three years ago I started having this strange experience where I would randomly begin to smell smoke, when there was no real smoke to be smelled. The first time it happened it was so strong that I figured something in my office building must actually be burning, so I started wandering the halls trying to pin-point where it was coming from, sniffing the air so deeply that I almost hyperventilated. Three years, multiple doctors appointments, two specialist referrals, one EEG and one MRI test later, I was told that this was a common phenomenon, a condition related to migraine auras, and completely harmless. Apparently there's even a name for it: it's called phantosmia. 

I've actually come to welcome my phantosmia episodes when they happen (usually one will come along every couple of months or so). The smoke scent itself is not unpleasant, something like a campfire smell, and they often trigger vague feelings of nostalgia. Early on in my journey with phantosmia, though, I was thinking about the ways in which this experience of looking intently for a smell that isn't there could be a metaphor for life. A few songwriting sessions later and I'd come up with this.



I’m being haunted
By a scent of smoke
I’m just being taunted
Cause when I look around
Nothing’s burning

Oh, how I hunted
For a scent of smoke
I had what I wanted
But when I woke I found
Empty yearning

Like a bird in a fist
That flutters away
Before it can be glimpsed
Like a dream that escaped
Before the dreamer awoke
My heart has been shaped
By a scent of smoke

Still I’m undaunted
I can take a joke
And yet I’m haunted
Cause when I look around
Nothing’s burning

Like a bird in a fist
That flutters away
Before it can be glimpsed
Like a dream that escaped
Before the dreamer awoke
My heart has been shaped
By a scent of smoke