In honor of finals almost being done, I want to do a writing exercise.
Prompt: Make a list of objects. Pick one that you can smell, one you can taste, and one you can see and write on each object for three minutes.
1. the smell of leftovers
The split pea soup was from two days ago. It smelled cold and moist, like it was slowly dying to climb into my stomach or into the trash can. The contents sizzled in the microwave and when I pulled it out, it enveloped me in green haze of cooked pea smell and rain in the evening and flowers poking out of the snow and getting called to dinner and my stomach rumbling in anticipation of the next meal it would digest.
2. the taste of lipstick
I bite into my sandwich, forgetting momentarily that I still had my deep red lipstick on. My stomach churns at the sight of the red half circle now implanted on my lunch, but I’m hungry and I have to be back in my costume in 20 minutes. Closing my eyes, I feel the taste of my ham tinged with metal invade my mouth and creep its way down my throat. The taste of tears, sweat, iron, and sickeningly fake redness cling onto my taste buds for the Waltz of the Snowflakes.
3. the sight of orange spray paint
Orange against black in a dark tunnel. It gleams bright under superficial light. It is a gang sign with a meaning I don’t know. The orange screams Caution! I’m dangerous! and Caution! We don’t want you here! It screams of innocence lost and youth trying to find themselves, but failing.
Smell – as a young child in southern Louisiana we had small flowers called Four-o-clocks. The smell is so sweet and strong in my memory. It brings me back to warm, moist summer mornings. These flowers would close during the heat of the day and open wide during the cool times. They are colorful and a delight to all the senses.