Double Diddled by Dad and Diddy

Let’s workshop this poem about the relentless pursuit of personal autonomy devolving into a rudderless state: primitive desires overriding better judgment, leaving no room for the voice of restraint

scent of the day: Fiori d'Ambra, by Profumum Roma. Fiore D’Ambre—a spiced-amber throwback carried out with top-tier ingredients—opens with a combo of creamy vanilla leather (like Shalimar) and soapy incense (like One Man Show Oud Edition) with a twinge of what would seem like honey made from opium poppies (which never happens since their alkaloids are toxic to bees), but then—these first elements receding from the spotlight but continuing to hum—a lemony powder marked by sweet-sour rosiness and patchouli-like earthiness ramps up until it becomes hard not to see this as a denser and more enduring version of Habit Rouge EDP—although here we have hints of unlisted warm spices (perhaps clove, cinnamon) and unlisted warm resins (perhaps myrrh, benzoin, even opoponax) and unlisted warm woods (incensy sandalwood, perhaps cedar too) like we get in Serge Luten’s Ambre Sultan and YSL’s Opium).

---

Double Diddled by Dad and Diddy*

So hellbent on hacking
at the mooring ropes of others
telling us what to do, one day

we might not know what
to do (too adrift to know what
or even how to choose) except

to ride the tide of inborn impulse
for kid-tang candy and the like—
no hint of akrasia.

*Title should be rapped with the cadence of Big Pun

---