Flavorful Mind

Dedicated to my good friend GalaxyGhost.

“Insane?”

How tasteless.

Let’s think of something better, shall we?

“Colorful?”

Cliché.

“Atypical?”

Bleh.

“Flavorful?”

Yummy.

We’ll go with that.

You see,

I have these different varieties of thoughts -

Like a box of assorted candies, if you will -

And while I can’t promise that every one will be pleasant,

There might be a fancy in here that suits your own.

So go ahead.

Open me up.

Take a bite.

I dare you,

With a devious, unsettlingly gleeful grin

And a mischievous twitch of my eyebrows.

 

Just look at them!

So many flavors,

So little time.

Time,

Time,

Thyme.

An herb whose pronunciation

I’ve never understood,

But a wonderfully bewildering taste

For a puzzlingly intangible concept.

Tick, tock,

Watch, clock,

Measure, lose,

Time to choose,

Running out of something

That doesn’t really exist.

Will we every truly understand it?

 

Deep thoughts

Call for deep shots,

So here’s a lovely, blue-green drop of profundity

As haunting and deadly as the sea.

Why is the rum gone?

Back off, sailor -

I’m never drinking spirits -

But I’ll let my spirits sink to the murky depths

Like an iron-willed anchor.

Anchor, anchor, yes,

Please hold me down

Lest I fly off into space

Where I don’t want to go,

A candy that tastes of emptiness,

Nothing,

A bit of “Milky Way,” perhaps, if you’re feeling punny

And some tiny drops of blood,

Frozen or vaporized,

Whatever happens to those people

In every space movie I’ve seen.

No,

No thank you.

I do not wish to partake.

 

So many strange and abstract flavors,

Otherworldly;

Let’s get back down to Earth

With the marvelous taste of freshly-brewed dirt:

Coffee.

No cream or sugar, thank you.

I like it black,

As dark and bitter as my soul.

But in truth, I ordinarily prefer

“Just tea, thank you.”

Ha ha.

 

You can have more dirt

If you want to talk about death

And my fear of being buried alive;

But for the less morbidly inclined,

There’s a candy called “Gravel;”

Still found on an incline, in fact -

A giant, deadly-steep hill

That I love to go hurtling down,

Running, dodging, leaping, light-footed, laughing

It’s incredible,

But take care -

You may trip and end up with a mouthful.

 

There are more flavors for running

Called “Bug” and “Sweat” and “Dew-Soaked Race Day Grass”

That are stressful, but delicious.

There were once a few for basketball

Known as “Dusty Middle-School Gym” and “Licorice That Was The Only Reason My Teammates Ever Liked Me,”

But that line was discontinued freshman year.

What a relief.

 

There are flavors for sisters

And flavors for parents,

Flavors called “Searching For Colleges”

(M&Ms got me through the scholarships),

Flavors for friends

And for turn-around moments,

Flavors for when I love my maniacal family members

And flavors that taste like revulsion and headache and DONE.

Grape, pineapple, banana,

Marble bark, lemon meringue pie,

Chocolate, chocolate, control freaks, tears, and more chocolate,

Peanut-butter jelly graham crackers, fundraiser cookies,

Cheddar cheese on Dutch apple pie, ice cream, the basement.

Just let me be alone for a while.

 

There are many flavors for school

And for homework;

The horrible smell of the Freshman Center hallways,

The soap I used to wash the test tubes for AP Biology,

Pencils and paper and stress.

There’s a candy as dark as midnight,

No - as two AM -

And it’s the flavor of terror,

The shadow in the corner,

Flickering, lurking,

Paralyzing;

The taste of a waking nightmare.

There’s a candy called “Kidney Bean”

No, seriously - it’s a kidney-flavored jelly bean -

And it comes from the excessive enjoyment I take

In dissecting animal viscera during Anatomy.

 

On the subject of organs

There’s a flavor called “Brain,”

Not for zombies - my brain -

And it’s like one of those candies

That sizzle and pop when you put them on your tongue;

That’s for all of the times I think way too much about stuff,

Getting into awkward situations,

Tormenting myself with my own single-minded stupidity;

Why can’t I separate things like everyone else?

If only it were waffle-flavored,

With each concept divided into neat little compartments;

But instead, it’s more like I’m trying to make soup,

Attempting to make everything meld together and work,

But it just ends up tasting like poison.

So I should stick with the candy.

Oh well.

 

All these pieces,

All these flavors,

Many I haven’t named

Because I’ve forgotten and I’m too tired to do so,

But you’re welcome to come and sample what you like -

It hasn’t killed me yet.

Don’t be afraid -

Come taste and see

Your favorite flavor

Of my

Insanity.

Author's Note

As I said, this poem is dedicated to my friend GalaxyGhost. Check out her poem/song "Piece of Cake" here: http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/GalaxyGhost/1796222/. It was part of the inspiration for this piece. This is also somewhat reminiscent of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans from Harry Potter, with a twist. And then there's just a bunch of inexplicable weirdness. Welcome to my brain.

Reviews

[LittleBear]

Very nice!! I loved the opening and all the symbolism you used when referring to the "dirt". Even though this poem - I interpreted to be about who you are as a person (forgive me if I am wrong) - I could really relate to many of your words. It was a fun piece with almost a sassy - intelligent - tone. Nicely done! :)

[AliciaB]

Thank you very much! You are correct in your interpretation - although it's more like what goes on inside my head, and less of what I'm like when others are around. :) I appreciate the review!

[Einstein Noodle]

i love this ..i love the message and the spontaneous (so it seems to me) meandering from sweet to bitter ... its quite the mix ... and i love the Insanity .. it gets a bum rap and preconceived notions far too much ..
E.
ps. thank you for the link to Piece of Cake :)

[AliciaB]

Thank you very much! "Spontaneous meandering" is a perfect description of this poem and the way I wrote it. :) And you are welcome! Thanks again!

[Raylene]

This made me laugh at the description of each part of the mind to amusing flavor name well done Alicia

[AliciaB]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

[Raylene]

Anytime dear

[Lyn Anderson]

This is absolutely delightful -- complex, playful, whimsical, and EPIC. Very very cool. And I can feel the runner in you -- no one gets the love of the burn and sweat unless you love it yourself.

[AliciaB]

Thank you so much! Yeah... people tell me I'm crazy for loving to run. That just makes me love it even more. :)

[barleygirl]

I really love the opening, when trying on words for size, then settling on "flavorful" as a perfect description of one's mind. Then I also really love the way the various flavors start out more predictable, then gradually drift on toward a place that's not typical, but still fitting the idea of "flavors" in more bizarre and/or analogous ways. Normally I love when a writer plunges into an extensive expansion of an idea, but this one does go on & on just a wee bit more than my attention span was enraptured by. I'm impressed by your ability to stretch your imagination to every corner of possibility, but I'm just into a more focused message sometimes.

[AliciaB]

Thank you very much! I agree with the whole attention-span thing... I was writing this rather late at night, and I actually started becoming bored/tired myself, so I decided to give it a rest. :) It's a rather desultory writing style, one that I don't often use - but it is highly enjoyable to do so once in a while. It also helps that I understand all of my own jokes - keeps me more engaged, I think. :) Thank you again for the lovely, detailed review. I appreciate it!

[barleygirl]

I had to look up "desultory" . . . nice word . . . I think I'll try to use it sometime! *smile*

[AliciaB]

Yep... that's about all I got from my high school English experience. :) (Just kidding. I got a lot more!)

[GalaxyGhost]

Oh my goodness, this is brilliant! One of my favorite lines was: "Time, Time, Thyme" and the reference to Pirates of Caribbean is splendid! Thank you! I love the fact that this is much like the jelly beans and also, it has a ton of imagery and use of different sweets! Hats off to you! You're fantastic!

[AliciaB]

Thank you so much! It makes me very happy that you got the Pirates of the Caribbean reference. :) Thanks again for the lovely review!

[GalaxyGhost]

You're welcome!

[James]

This was a fun trip through your mind, so much to see and so much to think about. A playful mixture of fun, with some erotic overtone.

[AliciaB]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Your comment surprised me - I actually wasn't going for such an overtone at all - but I guess, as with all poetry, it's open to interpretation. :)

[Shabeeh Haider]

We all have an assorted collection of thoughts. Different colours, different flavours and in this poem you have let those colours run amok.
W e all have different flavours for everyone. Depending who you are with. A parent, a sibling, a teacher or a friend.
One thought leads to another random thought.
At times it is good to let it all out.
Hard to pinpoint to anything particular but I enjoyed this colourful presentation.

[AliciaB]

Thank you!