More Poet's Place Poems

Sam Adam’s Synesthesia

Sam Adam’s Synesthesia

Sam Adams one day
found that he had developed
unusual powers,

Superpowers almost.
He had super hearing,
he could read minds,

and he could
communicate with animals.

But the weirdest of all
was he had synesthesia—

he saw colors
when he heard things
and smelled things
as well when he heard things.

He saw the emotions
in the words spoken to him
as colors

and he saw the emotions
of others as colors.

Thinking that someone
had slipped him some LSD
at the mad party he had gone
to the other day,

he kept his superpowers
to himself.

But finally,
he could not
hide it anymore

and told his parents,
Conservative Christian
fundamentalists
about his powers.

They freaked out
and told him that his powers
were the result
of demonic possession.

and they went
to their minister
who interviewed Sam.
And performed

a useless exorcism
calling for the demons
to leave Sam
in Jesus’s name, of course.

The minister was
a lustful evil man.

Sam saw the lust
in his eyes
as bright red colors.

Sam went to his friend’s house
and demonstrated
his abilities to them.
They got him
to see a doctor.

The doctor confirmed
that he was suffering
from a rare form
of mental illness:
synesthesia.

The doctor also told him
that he needed to report it
to the government.

The doctor called his buddies
who worked for an unnamed
secret agency
that officially does not exist.

The agency
took him away
for questioning.

He was detained in Area 51
They questioned
and tortured him.

Finally, the agency made him
an offer of employment
as a special CIA agent.

And Sam went to work
for the agency
which was filled
with black and gray shadows.

As they all lied
and Sam was
able to penetrate
through their lies.

---
Based on following prompt

In real life, synesthesia is a neurological condition in which the stimulation of one sense triggers a reaction in another sense. Imagine tasting chocolate every time you see the color red.

In poetry, it is the practice of blending multiple sensory references in a single description, as in
The hot pink t-shirt screamed for attention.


Thus, the reader's sensory perception is enhanced by adding the tactile "hot" and the audio "screamed" to the visual "pink."

More examples can be found in the following links:

https://literaryterms.net/synesthesia/