Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: cinnamon laced with cloves and topped with sugared walnuts; hazelnut cream, spiced cherry compote, a maple syrup drenched corn waffle; champagne cranberry-ginger — breakfast at Cafe Flora Touch: the soft brush of a cotton sleeve; thick, waxy leaves; dense, moist, warm air Sight: red peppers, green peppers, carrots, broccoli, coated in a green glistening mango-curry sauce; a sun-drenched brown bear , a jaguar wide-eyed in shadows, a platinum tree kangaroo , a sliver Great Horned owl , pink ruffled flamingos, a white Coscoroba swan , a night bat, the skeletal, prehistoric-shape of a giraffe's head, a tiger walks into vertical striped leaves; little girls coated in ice cream, rainbow lollipops and tears; a concrete cliff, a concrete pit, concrete dunes Smell: lavender Sound: the shushed, rustled, whisperings of a dark, enclosed space; a bird's trill like a wind-up toy; a baby boy cries Extra: a story about skaters; a story about Victorian gentlemen's clubs

Taste: dry mead by Sky River Brewing, tart and bittersweet, honey wine with Golden Delicious apples Touch: rocking chair, camel riding, waves: the liquid body Sight: a dim blue light, a deep water fish with a bioluminescent antennae — lanternfish Smell: peanuts and urine Sound: Dr. Paul Farmer's last words if bitten by a poisonous beetle: "Where's the antidote?" (delivery) and "What about other people?"; Can we cure drug resistant TB? Farmer: "If we can put a man on the moon, I can't believe that's an insuperable problem." Extra: "No matter how much you've prepared yourself beforehand, you're never really ready to see a naked man." — police nab half-naked man, Twin Falls Idaho 1995; thanotology (the study of death and dying), music thanatology , Bereavement Department, calming presence; suicide ideations (medical term for thoughts of suicide), maternal mortality, health — the final frontier, the three D's of gl...

Taste: grilled onion and potatoes Touch: thin velvet pile broken by a cigarette burn Sight: luminous blue words; a man roller skating backwards; brown roots under black water; a candelabra of red roses; brand new black and red rebel clothes on a brown-haired young man; a scattering of squirrels Smell: mold Sound: a brass quintet; adjusting the bass, distant lyrics Extra: She probably doesn't know I'm thinking, "I have that shirt."; The Aqua Theatre 1950-1969 , The Aqua Follies, Aqua Dears and Aqua Darlings; a character who has a visible characteristic about which others cannot help but comment on; rebellion stage one; clarity and brightness the street at 1 a.m., lit like dawn; a mosaic of infinitesimally tiny, undulating green, gold, and pink dots

Taste: cloves in oats Touch: the cool, wax, plastic surface of an enormous hot house grown pepper imported down from Canada Sight: hunger polished manufactured red: a red pepper, a red Corvette Smell: Caribbean coconut cabbage stew cooking Sound: "I got 95 out of 100 on my firefighter exam."; "...babies. We're going to give one of our babies to my sister." Extra: Chimposiums and "Rachel in Love," by Pat Murphy; Landing at the Southern tip of Africa and driving all the way north on the red road that winds down the continent to suburban homes by worn out asphalt surrounded by chain link fences: "Do not drink the borderless water." But do you realize, "There may not be any other kind?"; a purple lotus blossom unfurled, a magnolia bud in mind

Taste: burnt garlic Touch: tears Sight: purple lupine Smell: basil Sound: Cruxshadows, "Birthday" Extra: borrowing a body with sunburned peeling fair skin and larger, unfamiliar proportions; an island of long life, Icaria

Taste: apple pie and black butte porter, sweet yeast and hops and butter and cinnamon Touch: swaying on waves, tepid water and wind, chill on wet skin Sight: fluffs of fur like opening cattails; a towel Emperor penguin six-feet tall and grotesque, a mouse towel hiding under the sheets; greys and blues Alaska ocean, mist, fog, mountains and sky Smell: sweet ocean; chamomile, aloe, papaya, grapefruit - a facial Sound: sputtering gasps, humpback whales breeching; "Here, dear!" Extra: an apartment in New York City, driving around town; an orca leaping overhead; a peach dress with a princess cut and a flouncy tulle skirt worn to a high school reunion for artists

Taste: A vampire (Cape Cod plus Chambord): vodka, cranberry juice, lime, black raspberry liquor Touch: her plush cheeks and brow, a pink, powdery softness Sight: sedated she shrinks and shimmers becoming delicate and fey like in her hospital gown; "Given enough coffee you can rule the world" Smell: acrid pulp mill scent in a pocket outside an apartment Sound: Lost world music God Shall Be Praised, Music from Lune Convent , features music from a cloister first established in the year 1170; "The Wrong Side," Abney Park , "I run where the darker kids run on the dark stained streets where the black rain runs."..."I dance where the darker crowds dance in the pitch black clubs in a blood-stained trance."; muzzy: confused or muddled in mind Extra: timeless and timely knowledge, why we still read Plato, the last page of Critias , "They bore their vast wealth of gold and other possessions without difficulty, treating them as if they were a b...