Shel Graves' Sensorium

Champagne and Elderflowers  Forgotten dreams, the skin on her hands softens,  “The more you eat the hungrier you become,” says the Queen of the Flower Fairies.  Perched on the steps with a peppermint stomach, “Not every day fills with poems and dreams,” she says.

Less Gratitude  She wakes and whines,  Life motivates.  Even in the cold rain.  Food, she thinks and hopes.  Body trembles,  The kitchen blurs.  Until she eats and sleeps,  Urgency fades.  Upon the warm couch, Life satisfies.

COVID 19  Usual writing room and usual posture.  Plus fear.  Up in the middle of the night. Cat staring.  Midnight news. Foot tinging against floor and inner thigh.  Morning news.  Thigh pressed tightly against chair.  Added worry.  Elbows hanging heavily.  Easy irritation.  Right wrist, middle back, neck stiff.  Weird shame.  Breath only through right nostril.  Dull fury. Itchy eyes. Arms overhead.  Plus fear.

Taste: maple; sour jelly beans Sound: washer/dryer; March wind Smell: vanilla almond cream in coffee  Sight: bookshelves, multicolored bindings  Touch: the heft of a book, a paperback, poetry, tome  Extra:    "It’s alright/if you fall out of love with being alive, but rise again tomorrow/with French pop songs and fresh croissants, wear all your gold/" — Traci Brimhall, Contender , Come Slumberless to the Land of Nod  “I will be waiting here. for your silence to break for your soul to shake for your love to wake. —Rumi”  A jolt of joy candy, sitting for a moment in the sun, a sip of water  Grateful for: calm, serenity

Peaceful  My anxious friends dissipated during the day,  “Remember when we were club kids in Germany?” Sultana said.  My heart once beating fervently fast.  “What is solarpunk?” I repeat and try to explain.  Yesterday’s urgent aches become tinged with feeling.   My arms reach up toward the black tulip magnolia,  As you steer the kayak through warm moonlit waters,  We pass quietly through the peaked waves, And listen to the wolves howl in the distance.

NEW LOCATION!  I have selected my own furniture and inherited only one piece.  The long red couch lingers at the south end of the gaming table.  When the cat comes, the couch gets up to leave. She's tired of being sat upon.  The wooden eagle guarding the couch kingdom pecks the back of my neck.  I lay here lazily thinking, “I must remember to take my medicines.”

Rolling Fives   Breathe in.  Pause for five seconds.  Eat cashew cheesecake.  Breath out.  Pause for five seconds.  Eat popcorn, wine, and rice. More rice.  Breathe in.   Breathe in.   Pause for five seconds.  Soak in Epsom Salts.   Breath out.   Pause for five seconds.   Spa! Massage! Acupuncture!   Breathe in.