Battle of the Senses

Are flowers better than a song? Is sound
More useful than aroma, does a boom
Replace the scent of roses in the room?
Is every petal just above the ground
A thrilling source of beauty, sweetly crowned
By babies' breaths, or, rather, has the gloom
Surrounding us, like moss grown on a tomb,
Made fragrance horrible and songs redound?

I see the singer take a regal pose,
The red carnation set in his lapel,
Standing beside a clean artesian well
On which a wafting bank of flowers grows.
He sings for us, until we see his nose
Has wrinkled up, and registered the smell.