Seroconversion Cruising Grounds (ROUND 2)
Let’s workshop this poem about anal sex versus vaginal sex--an unflinching look at the spaces where desire and transmission in the era of the AIDS crisis converge into a mural of Keith Haring geometry
scent of the day: Zagorsk, by Comme des Garcon
A solid cross between Avignon’s sweet and resinous coziness and Kyoto’s sauna-wood and vetiver austerity (that same akigala-esqu woodiness Amouage’s Purpose takes to an extreme of metallic futurism), Zagorsk—leaning towards Kyoto’s dry Martian-tundra sterility more than towards Avignon’s warm and spicy balsamic heft—I see as a bottle of Kyoto dosed with a few shots of Avignon (rather than the other way around) and then hit with some peppercorns and pine shavings (what Esnar would call pine skins)—the overall effect being (as intended) an austere-forest-meets-Russian-Orthodox incense fragrance that, despite overlapping so much in scent and feel of solitude with Kyoto (due mainly to shared vetiver, cedar, and cypress), stands out as unique for two main reasons: (1) Zagorsk’s hinoki wood (the wood of Hinoki cypress) is less herbal and brisk than Kyoto’s cypress, and this makes Zagorsk more grounded and introverted (think: a bearded melancholic man, a savage messiah, ravaged into near insanity by the relentless efforts not to freeze to death) than the brighter and extroverted Kyoto (think: a clean-shaven rock gardener with an air of tranquil equanimity); (2) one thinks more of a forest kept at bay by a vast and meticulously manicured rock garden with Kyoto (this due to its having a more pronounced mineralic and metallic open-air aura) whereas one thinks more of a more claustrophobic evergreen forest buried by snow (this due to the coniferous contributions of pine and frankinscence coupled with (a) the peppery akigala-vetiver feel of mineralic coldness we see in both Kyoto and Purpose, (b) the subdued skin-scent projection, and (c) the powdery violet and iris that together overlay an ethereal blanket velvety enough to make the evergreen element seem muffled and hushed and almost ghostly). / Savage messiah in pine forest monastery scent / terpenic resins of Avignon meets the akigala-like sauna-wood and vetiver austerity of Kyoto (that same woodiness taken to a metallic future in Amouage’s Purpose) to make for a feel that would be as dry and cold and sterile as Kyoto’s martian landscape were it not for the pine and vegetative and Avignon-esq spicey elements (elements here, however, muted enough to seem covered by snow). / androgenous character like Kyoto and Avignon / the incense smoke is more ethereal than Avignon, but not as ethereal as Kyoto / the evergreen freshness and bite is there despite the muffling of what seems snow/ birch contributes a smooth, slightly sweet, and slightly smoky woodiness. / violet provides a powdery, sweet, and slightly earthy floral touch. / Iris adds a powdery, earthy, and slightly rooty floral note with a touch of violet. / what really brings this to the Amouage Purpose (and thereby Kyoto) sde of the aisle is the pimento berry, which tickles the nose / Because it emphases like Kyoto the stark stripped-back woods more than the sweeter and heavier amber of Avignon (which creates a shared “forest-meets-incence” character), Zagorsk does seem more closer to Kyoto than to Avignon: it is as if we have a kyoto base and beefed it up with the ambery spices and terpenes of Avignon./ The commonality between Kyoto and Zagorsk is largely a function of their vetiver and their cedar and especially their cypress element: Zagorsk has the Japanese Hinoki wood and Kyoto has cypress, but the two really overlap a lot as would be expected since hinoki wood comes from hinoki cypress—although one might find subtle differences: whereas Hinoki wood is dry, smooth, and meditative woody scent that is terpenic and soft with smoke and calming enough to bring to mind Japanese temples or hot spring baths, cypress has a more herbal and greener and fresher edge, and also a less resinous edge, compared to hinoki and can give a more brisk and bracing feel that is associated more with bright and sharp extroversion than Hinoki’s meditative and grounding introversion / obviously olibanum serves as a primary anchor for both fragrances, creating a shared smoky, resinous, and meditative core, but it also should be said that the two share similar woody bases: they overlaps in cedar and cypress vibe and the cypress hinoki Wood (Zagorsk) and Teak Wood (Kyoto) both have a smooth, resinous, slightly smoky quality (altohg hinoki has a citrusy brightness and teak is warmer and creamier); also the Pimento Berries of Zagorsk lie the coffee in Kyoto adds a grounding warm, spicy, and slightly earthy facets; also the Cypress in Kyoto and the Pine in Zagorsk both have crisp, dry, and slightly resinous tones that overlap, adding a shared outdoorsy sharpness. / Ultimately, their similar smoky-woody-resinous structures unify them, despite distinct details in their profiles.
Seroconversion Cruising Grounds
A death corona
of fecal sludge pools at the hilt
of the continence-wrecker,
waveform
contour jigging
with every pullback,
like the scuzzy scum line
on a time-lapsed beach—
an inversion, demonic
as toes-ever-inward ballet,
of the life corona
of cervical nectar.
