MADE FOR YOU AND ME 3: hive Being (Stanzas 2018--part 6)
scent of the day: Hera, by Papillon
Only my second wear but Hera is phenomenal. If there would be an image for this fragrance it would be a combination of white and yellow flowers in both their roots (orris, vetiver) and stems (galbanum, may rose, narcissus) and their petals (jasmine, turkish rose, orange blossom, ylang, heliotrope), with a primary focus I would say on the watery nectar they produce.
Yes, this is primary a nectar focus: too wet and lotiony, to resinous and anchored, to be mere pollen (jammy turkish rose, dewy May rose, custardy ylang ylang, creamy vanilla, buttery orris, leathery labdanum, inky oakmoss, milky sandalwood, rooty vetiver, soily patchouli) to be mere pollen; and yet too sparkling and luminous, too clean and windblown, to be beeswax or even just honey (aldehydes, bitter bergamot, soapy musk, herbaceous clary sage, meadowy narcissus, powdery heliotrope)—although I should say that there is an undertone deep down of waxy animalism (jasmine, ambrette absolute, orange blossom, narcissus) that hints, in concert with the whole, at an aristocratic white woman (I picture Linda Pilkington, a woman of tailored elegance, rather than the swarthier more Carmen-style likes of a Cecil Zarokian or a Francesca Bianchi) who shifts in privacy into a mess-maker eager to ride reverse cowgirl with a clit-smacking fury.
Think of this as a wet vegetal bouquet—like the whole flower package rather than just the green stem that Dryad focuses on with its glabanum-oakmoss-vetiver trio. This is really freaking good. There is a sweetness that is delicate throughout—like a watery nectary dusted with pollen and trichromes and other powdery plant proteins. Saltiness, similar to Spell 125, comes out in dry down. Not a girly girl scent. If it is a girl, it is a confident, mature woman not so much with an artistic personality like Liz Moores (the creator) but more like one with the tailored elite affect of Linda Pilkington (who is my image for this fragrance).
I think that there might even be sebum-scalp costus in here. Narcisuss I guess is the star, if you had to pick one, but not in the spotlight way of Rayong Fleur or my personal favorite: the extremely animalic Nargis Noor. Hera is definitely the classiest of these other yellow floral frags and definitely the best priced of the three. and perhaps only beat by narges nor for my personals taste.
Liz Moores confirmed with me what I suspected: the indolis base of Kinamo and Last Season and Salamanca is in Hera—although Hera is much more elegant and more nectarous floral than either of those three beastly frags. This indolis aromachemical (a sort of green leatheriness all by itself) in concert with the other leather elements (vetiver and oakmoss and labdanum especially) and the other green elements (narcissus, galbanum, oakmoss, clary sage) gives us a smoky green leather right there with Dryad and Last Season, one so dusted with powder and at the same time beaded with dew (especially from the Bortnikoff-reminiscent combo of heliotrope and May rose) that it would come of like Classica were it not for that stemmy-herbal green side.
MADE FOR YOU AND ME 3: hive Being (Stanzas 2018—part 6)
cripple porn
enough empties fill the rusty shopping cart for a nice bottle of dinner
wondering if your presence will taint the family photo since you are so soon to die
rejecting the best statesmen, but not the best brain surgeon, for cheating on his wife
is it possible to fear the worst without denominating what it is?
trophy hunting with art consultants and millions (not game guides and guns)
nostalgic for the future as envisioned over thirty years ago
praying for a fatal pandemic to open up jobs
porta-potty sex
the struggle between being grateful to have him and needing to be respected
since everything has a sufficient reason (such that every agent’s ways and deeds are locked in place by antecedent factors), and since ought implies can, ethics— normative at its core, concerned with what ought to be—has no ultimate footing
funding is available to preserve only those endangered creatures more conspicuously charismatic
that navel-gazing posture engenders the very protruding belly you loathe and keep checking for: a human story
multicolored to the envy of others in the clan, jasper in the early humanoid axe—despite being knowingly inferior for chopping—had its utility
some (parents) keep alive hope by counting as superstars those whom any (child) can become
present the convicted with data, and the clutch upon belief tightens; tempestuous gestures are needed
seize-the-day mindset hampering productivity
no one left to remember that event, you feel as if from some alien planet
a cartoon of her varied afflictions he was, the carbuncled husband who could no longer maneuver himself through the bedroom door
you are not crazy to have such feelings, but if you complain only to one person that person might start thinking you are
our kind cannot survive outside zoos but that does not mean that our zoos must be eviscerated of all wilderness
the father commands the beaten child, “Kneel now and beg for God’s mercy,” but with rage contrived to hide from himself his talking mostly to himself
remorse never directly alters the past, anxiety sometimes directly alters the future, but both spur us to achieve time travel
what is worse, pretending to be who you are or pretending to be someone else?
prismatic refuse adrift in currents of tropical cerulean
wanting stability enough that you hide from chaos, that which builds stability
dissuaded from suicide by the intricacy of the knot
voting for the horror, a protest vote, merely in hope to wake people up, take part
divorce paperwork declaring that the frequent-flyer miles be split down the middle
chopping it, burning it, the wood heats you twice
phone numbers, grocery needs, to do items written over child art
mirror rehearsals of a new tone to match a new rank
those who cannot take being conscious alone in darkness
unable to shed the hipster aesthetic that makes you sick
in the dark still able to feel everything as she left it
fishing shit out of your date’s weak toilet, to throw where?
the artist found what the archaeologist missed
others recognizing that you are gay before you do
the urgency with which students imitate the social-justice protests of the 60s has them convinced that dead issues are worth blind fury—if only such innocence did not stir such evil: spoiling blacks into invalids and demonizing whites into told-ya-so backlash
identity is merely whatever we insist it is (girl, black, Little Mermaid, God) so long as we are not social creatures—and so the more we retreat into our echo bubbles (easy with cyberspace) the more legitimate it is to say our identity is whatever we insist it is
if you are jealous and controlling, do you devote the effort to changing or to finding someone who wants that?
could she still be the one if she does not see how great your art is before you blow up?
feeding-tube guilt trips laid upon those supposed to let go
bureaucrats expecting slave-labor teachers not to cut corners
buying drugs with food stamps
not knowing if you will remember how to hug
new talent, but always old content
shore returns of sea burials
bored by your own mastery
hoaxing for belonging
shaky-handed seniors alienated from smartphones
board-game bankruptcies were soon forgotten
the lawd for blacks pre-slavery
the mortician buttoned the shirt all the way up, as he never would
keeping your liberal positions a secret from your husband
taking media notes on how to be ourselves
too embarrassed to be seen out with a walker
what systematizers have tried to hide from us, and even themselves, so that their systems may hang together without internal discord
there is something extra unsettling about female serial killers, and likewise about female white nationalists
were it not for our knack to excuse ourselves, so many who never achieve their dreams would not realize the emptiness of dreams
biological males should be allowed to swim against, or even fight, biological females in athletic events, but let that be done in its own mixed category
