Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: stinging, intoxicating, sweet chocolate-truffle vodka and espresso-tempered, dark-chocolate vodka Touch: raspberry smashed underfoot Sight: yellow dahlia through a white picket fence; a bus passes, a gust sends a windy-spray of dandelion seeds flying; her jowl twitching toward the window, wafting barbecue smoke Sound: peeping birds; robotic ice cream truck; rapid-fire squirrel cheeping; whispered: "Yummy!" Smell: warm earth on dog fur Extra: you sound like the manager in Office Space ; this concert T-shirt lasted longer than our friendship; that girl's oblivious to flirtation

Taste: peeled, grated carrots and chopped cucumber with skins Touch: tiny, sticky, leaves Sight: a plastic tricycle — yellow body, orange seat, blue handlebars, hung up in a basketball hoop; Pipa's Red Fringe Flower: Loropetalum Chinense Pipa's Red also known as Chinese Witch Hazel Sound: birdsong: sparrows, seagulls; scrabbling, skittering, thin claws skritch, skritching up the gutter, over the rooftop, through the walls and into the attic Smell: the smell of death - unknown or sour, sweet rotten fruit, an alcoholic's skin the morning after binging, foamy hospital hand sanitizer; mint toothpaste in the break room Extra: Stacey's green, cotton puckered shirt (embroidered with "Stacey" on the front?); Spicey's last gasp; grandmother's white, floured face; a resting place for weary travelers; a transformation, a change in form, "...the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking all life with laughter..." Gitanjali , Tagore

Taste: cilantro, lime, black beans, tomato, avocado Touch: heat - oven hot marble; hanging out inside sun-warmed skin Sight: bright - red geraniums, orange nasturtiums, a floating lemon rind Sound: erotic ecclesiastical singing, chanting Stile Antico: Old-School A Cappella in Boston Smell: hot oil and ground corn tortilla chips; a neighborhood permeated with cooking gas-soaked charcoal briquettes Extra: It happened outside of herself on an island, mourning, great wailing waves of grief carried her, moaning, out every morning.

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