Memories of Cochin

Through high defiles of warehouses that dwarf
With undetermined age the passer-by,
    We walk toward the ancient wharf,
Assailed by smells - sweet, pungent, bitter, dry:

The perfumed plunder of a continent.
To this shore Roman, Moslem, Christian, Jew
    Were gathered by the dense, sharp scent;
Absorbed now in the once-outlandish view
...