Fairies' armpits & custard apples
Got my eyes peeled for a body lotion
Body lotions from the supermarket are such loudmouths.
Glow! Revive! Hydrate! Serum this, butter that! They all promise the moon, wrapped in pastel bottles with pictures of dewy leaves and melting butter. And I keep falling for it like a hopeful fool. The one I’m using right now is Vaseline Cocoa Glow Serum in Lotion. The texture is nice enough. Slick but not greasy. Creamy enough for my winter icicle fingers to easily apply.
Not bad, not great. I want to shake the bottle and ask, “Is this all you’ve got?”
I want goopy velvety lotion. Cold on my skin & not syrupy. Smelling & feeling like a fairies' armpit, if I had to guess. What would that even smell like? Maybe tender tuberose stalks. Maybe cherry blossom buds, unopened and blushing. Shimmering specks of glitter, too fine to see but catching the light just so. Metallic, sheer. Like a potion brewed under moonlight, stirred with a twig. Something you’d dab behind your ears before welcoming a brand new day. What lotion would bring me this feeling?!? I don’t know I’m still on the hunt.
on the other hand,
Ripe custard apples. Did you know we call them sitaphal in Hindi? It always feels strange on the tongue. Sita, the goddess, and phal, the fruit, both soft in their ways. But sitaphal also means pumpkin—how bizarre, how mismatched. Pumpkins: dirty orange, browned from too much sun, rolling heavy and stubborn in muddy patches of earth. Custard apples: delicate, almost indecently sweet, their skin like dragon scales you peel back to find snow-white flesh. I'd delete pumpkins from any & all menus on god's precious earth until I eat a pumpkin dish my tastebuds can tolerate. I can't stand their insistence on being everywhere! Soups, pies, coffees?!? I’ll keep biting until life tastes sweet again.
one of my favorite poems by Mary Ann Hoberman
If you enjoyed reading this free post, you’d love the book I’m currently writing!
I’ve also written Nature Observation Guide: Finding Poetic Inspiration in the Natural World to give you the tools & inspiration for your own writing sprints 🧡
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Just love Custard Apples AND pumpkin 😊. And as for those creams, I think I have tried them all and I can guarantee unless you have GREAT genes none of them are going to reduce wrinkles or make you look ten years younger, I would probably prefer 50 years, but after contemplating many years ago to have Botox and backing away I am happy in my skin.
I use lotions on my dry feet! I have problems with my heels and the doctor gives me cortisone shots but they don't work! So, my heels hurt all the time! Love your post!