NUMBLY FEELING EVERY SENSE or NEW EDITION WITH JOHNNY GILL

I

Can still

Smell, Feel, Hear, Taste, See this rain.

Smell. Because you always smell rain first. Petrichor.

Feel it lightly thwacking at my forehead, forearms, balcony railings, pavement.

Hear it set a steady percussive backbeat to our descending flights of stairs

Taste it.

If you smell, you soon thereafter, taste. And everything in India ends up rolling Uber your tastebuds and landing in your lungs.

See it. Through balcony windows at every turn only to stop and cease FULLY as you emerged…as we emerged with you.

I

Can still

Sense

This rain.

And no, Johnny, not for a second, could I stand it. I took it. I had to. But I couldn’t stand it.

#iqmgrateful and #iamthankful that I can close my eyes, or catch a waft of chemistry before rain happens, and let myself be carried all the way back to carrying you. The only time I ever carried you.