Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: too sweet huckleberry vinaigrette; oat milk Sight: Wilbur the pig; a meteor; fog, a lone a gas station on a winding road; Sasquatch; a bright orange mushroom; a deer on a bridge Sound:  Cher; whining Smell:  champagne-scented soap Touch:  stiff hands, swollen toes Extra: Go forth and get rained upon!; like a lost story that won't be forgotten and teases the mind with half-rememberedness.; a mean girl; assumptions: "Now I know, as I didn’t then, that emotion is itself a kind of talent not everyone has. A form of intelligence, perhaps—though not much valued by any culture I know of." — Carolyn Ives Gilman, Halfway Human   Grateful for: edible flowers; imagination

Taste: lemon basil butter; dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in vegan prosciutto Sight:  the ocean; a dog's tail that looks like a mountain lion's; cat in a bowl Sound: ocean waves Smell: creosote Touch: sea breeze Extra:  trying the new restaurant on opening weekend; a child's lost shoe Grateful for: days off with Sam

Taste:  white rice, gold potatoes, tempeh bacon Sight:  red sun rising into August's smoke-filled skies Sound:  barking, howling, whining, snarling, growling Smell:  peanut butter; smoke Touch:  sticky Extra: "Elizabeth was still in the hands of vicious men, but with a dog, there was love. With love there was hope. Hope was strength." — Nevada Barr, Destroyer Angel Grateful for: dogs, change, forests, hope, optimism, porgs, sleepovers, memento mori

Taste: fizzy lime water Sight:  porgs, as far as the eye can see; a smoke red sun Sound:  sizzling Smell: grocery store fried chicken in the stifling summer heat Touch: running in the summer heat; a stiff new pair of high-top sneakers Extra: "The best way to be superhuman is to do things that you love with other people who love them, too." — Cory Doctorow, Walkaway    "If we choose to bring a dog into our homes and hearts, we are obligated to do all we can to give them the best life possible..." Marc Bekoff, Canine Confidential  Grateful for: dogs

Taste: curry, salsa, spice, heat, habanero Sight:   looking up into trees leaves, looking out to the horizon, far-sight; a hummingbird Sound:  a man's voice imitating a woman's; nectar Smell:  vinegar as pest repellant Touch: the weight of the hot sky, heat exhaustion, sticky, muggy Extra:  craving; how even in a dystopia tiny lives go on, not exactly as usual, but somedays Grateful for: hummingbirds and nectar; world-building exercises

Taste:  raspberry, peach Sight:  sunlight shining through new leaves Sound: "We're going to be OK." Smell:  vanilla, lavender, peppermint Touch:  fur Extra: Sleep is a wordless place. Grateful for: fur, summer, furry summers

Taste:  nutmeg, peas, cayenne pepper Sight:  plush garnet and onyx velvet Sound:  dice fall Smell:  piss Touch: oppressive heat, weighty heat Extra: dark curly hair, black glasses, clumsy white hands, an unplaceable foreign accent, studying to be an astronaut, running marathons, a vegetarian wife learning Vietnamese cooking; a dreamscape -- a festival memento mori ? death but something undefinable, a maze of art filled with visual puzzles - black red, beige, the room of zombies and a bar that eats you; you are quickly lost, won't find your way out, every room looks different when you come back the way you went Grateful for: sleep