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somethingdarkerThe choice between putting a word here or in this other post, Potential Titles: Matter - States of[category], was occasionally arbitrary, so maybe check there, too. As an example, 'ointment' and 'medicine' are here but both are large and relatively generic categories that, in a different mood, I might have put in the other post as descriptive of state.
Adobe:
Through adobe walls and secret gardens - Philip Levine "The Whole Soul"
Acetate:
The acetate tears of a flickering film - Mary Jo Bang "Part of a Larger Picture"
Alkali/Alkaline:
When the acid meets the alkali - "In Transitu" [The Continental Monthly v.II no.1, July 1862]
Keen as an acid for an alkali - James Russell Lowell "Fitz Adam's Story"
Disaster's alkaline kiss - D.A. Powell "Useless Landscape"
Alum:
Pierced by the radar alum of wasps - Paul Cameron Brown "The Necklace Garden"
In a bath of oak ash lye and alum - Melissa Range "Kermes Red"
Amyl Nitrate:
Of gnats, amyl nitrate, and goddamn rain - Randall Mann "The Fall of 1992, Gainesville, Florida"
Antidote.
Antioxidant:
Line their pantry shelves with the antioxidant beads - Crystal Sidell "The Truth About Doppelgangers"
Antiseptic:
Antiseptic thrill of green sawdust - Paul Cameron Brown "Slaughterhouse"
Cocooned in their antiseptic habitats - David C. Kopaska-Merkel "An Open Letter to Our Astronauts"
Antitoxin:
An antitoxin to the world's infections - Edgar Lee Masters "So We Grew Together"
Asbestos.
Asphalt.
Aspirin:
Aspirin in this sunset of roses - Frank O'Hara "Chez Jane"
Attar:
Stir the attar of unused air - Lola Ridge "Dedication"
Uttermost attar of the living rose - Francis Brett Young "Dead Poets"
Beeswax:
Nailed in lockers sealed with beeswax - Ed Lynskey "Mrs. Lincoln's Terror of Moths"
Benzene:
Benzine rinsings from the moon dissolve all - Hart Crane "Lachrymae Christi"
A smell of recently scattered benzene - José Mármol "Another April, Too Cruel" transl. by Eileen O'Connor
Betadine:
Wipe away the blood and the betadine - Mary Hickman "If the Heart Does Not Restart"
Bioluminescence/Luminescence.
Bitumen:
And with bitumen burn the brittle bays - Virgil "Eclogues VIII" (transl. not identified)
A wild and bituminous song - Joseph Victor von Scheffel "Asphaltum" transl. by Charles Leland
Bleach.
Blotting Paper:
Fog has been blotting paper to my tears - Dean Young "Son of Fog" [Poetry April 2005]
Botulism:
a southern philter with a touch of botulism - upfromsumdirt (Ron Davis) "Abstrack Africana"
Brimstone.
Brine.
Bromide:
To administer their own bromide of fire - Paul Cameron Brown "Lavender"
A bromide or a borderland candle - Cyrus Cassells "Courage Song for Scott Warren"
Bulletproof Glass:
Can't take a photo through the bulletproof glass - Alexandra Lytton Regalado "La Cachiporrista"
Carbon Dioxide:
Offering me their oxygen in exchange for my carbon dioxide - Jason Schneiderman "House with a Hot Tub and Pool"
Sun, phosphorus, CO2, prayer - L. Lamar Wilson "Lauren Oya Olamina Explains Earthseed to Ernest Hemingway"
Castor Oil:
douse this blackness in viscous castor oil - Neha Maqsood "Things I Do to Remember Home"
Catalyst.
Cellophane:
Spark and sear of holy cellophane - Allison Hutchcraft "Though from Here I Can't Smell the Smoke"
A rose made from cellophane - Gregory Orr "Domestic Life"
Celluloid:
Rise away with the celluloid spirits - Nancy Ellis Taylor "Voodoo Corner Bus Stop"
Cement.
Ceramic:
A tote bag full of ceramic souvenirs - Helene Achanzar "The only poem I can write"
Ceramic tributes to the moon - Ira Goga "The Kitchen, Indexed"
Found my body in ceramic pieces - jessica Care moore "She Was"
Could break their ceramic silence - Caroline Harper New "Patients Regain Song Before Speech"
Chalk.
Charcoal.
Chemical/Chemistry.
Chloroform:
The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform - William Ernest Henley "In Hospital IV. Before"
Clay.
Clorox:
Sacraments of Clorox in the church of starch - Ted Kooser "Song of the Ironing Board"
Coal.
Coal-Damp [any flammable gas in a coal mine]:
What wine of coal-damp He will pour - Cale Young Rice "The Immanent God"
Cocaine:
Serves cocaine in cornucopia - Mina Loy "Lunar Baedeker"
Cod Liver Oil:
Eat cod liver oil and oatmeal - Lou Barrett "Oliver Hill Hotel: 1932"
A liquor I mix'd with my cod-liver oil - Henry S. Leigh "Songs of the Sick Room No. 1: Cod Liver Oil"
Cologne:
His compound of cologne & corrosion - William Archila "Spirits"
Concrete.
Cordial.
Cordite:
The mist of the cordite's gloom - George Blackstone Field "The Mustering of the Legion"
Cork:
Floating corks in the Dead Sea - Ana Castillo "Tell Me to Live for Something"
Cork the mouths of a thousand bottles - A.R. Narayanan "Man"
Uncork a bottle of that curious wine - Philip Lybbe Powys Lybbe "The Lay of the Sheriff"
Curare:
Which proves a curare for the heart - A. Van Jordan "Old Boy"
Detergent:
Obsessed with laundry detergent and floor wax - Gwynne Garfinkle "Misogyny" [Strange Horizons 13 April 2015]
That fantastic last whiff of lavender detergent - Shara Lessley "Sisyphus"
Deuterium:
Our ship is fueled by a deuterium iceball - Robert Randolph Medcalf, Jr. "Ice Magic"
Looked every bit as real as the deuterium - Robert Randolph Medcalf, Jr. "Ice Magic"
Diesel:
A fast-driving diesel flatbed of felled trees - Nickole Brown "Black bird, red wing"
On the subway huffing diesel and cigarettes - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha "bad road"
Craft the scene in recycled blood and stale diesel - Lalini Shanela Ranaraja "Tricona" [Strange Horizons 14 March 2022]
Dioxide:
Steam of dioxides of carbon and sulfur - Timothy Donnelly "Globus Hystericus"
Dross.
Drug.
Dry Ice:
While she burns like a sack of dry ice - Yusef Komunyakaa "You and I Are Disappearing"
Dung:
Polluted with the dung of demons damn'd - James Ewing Cooley "The Spawn of Ixion"
Dynamite.
Dye.
Elastic.
Elixir.
Emetic:
Bloomed like a neon emetic - Aimee Le "Faith"
Enamel.
Ether.
Fat.
Fiberglass.
Fiberoptic:
the illicit behind a fiberoptic veil - Jzl Jmz "Exhibition"
Fluorescence.
Fluorocarbons:
Song of fluorocarbons and roosters - Urayoan Noel "cinquains written during a tropical storm"
Fly Ash:
a city that too builds its water from fly ash - Jake Skeets "Sonoran Desert Poem"
Foil.
Formaldehyde:
Floating in a cloud of formaldehyde - Paul Cameron Brown "Point Spread"
To smother the smell of formaldehyde - Hilarie Jones "The Teacher"
Frankincense:
Upwafting to the skies no more their frankincense - Euripedes "Andromache" transl. by Michael Wodhull
No frankincense perfumed Heaven's vacant shrine - Euripedes "Helen" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Blessed by the frankincense of fragrant fir - Dana Gioia "Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir"
The necessary pigments and frankincense - Bruce Smith "Beautiful Throat"
Fuel.
Gas.
Gasoline.
Gelignite:
From gas and protest to gelignite and sten - Seamus Heaney "Whatever You Say Say Nothing"
As influenced by gelignite and bombs - H.H.U., Northhamptonshire Regt. "To My Bath" [The Anzac Book: Written and Illustrated in Gallipoli by the Men of Anzac, 1916]
Glass.
Glucose:
Gild his words with glucose - May Chong "Catering"
Glue.
Grease.
Gum:
Gums and amber found beneath the line - Mark Akenside "The Virtuoso. In Imitation of Spenser's Style and Stanza."
Patched him together with spirit gum and spare parts - Denise Dumars "The Golem"
Nor cared a wad of gum how I would feel - Wallace Irwin "An Inside Con to Refined Guys"
Heavy Metals:
They will speak of heavy metals in the air - Mara Pastor "Entonces Mi Hija/Then My Daughter" transl. by María José Giménez and Anna Rosenwong
Hydrofluorocarbons:
Only the hydrofluorocarbons know for sure - S. R. Compton "The Leonids, 11/18, 2002"
Incense.
Kerosene.
Kevlar:
Doses of patience and some Kevlar smiles - Geoffrey Brock "Trip Hop"
Dressed in leather and Kevlar - John M. Ford "Troy: the Movie"
A kevlar of tenderness enveloping me - Cyree Jarelle Johnson "jersey fems in the philly zoo"
Lacquer:
Sealed by terminology's lacquer - Diane Ackerman "Letter to Dr. B--"
Teetering on red-lacquered stems - John Gould Fletcher "Green Symphony"
Peach and plum in lacquered dyes - Edmund Gosse "A Dream of November"
The liquor of your laughter and the lacquer of your limbs - Emanuel Morgan "Opus 6"
Laudanum:
Laudanum by the bitter spoonful - Martin Espada "The Five Horses of Doctor Ramon Emeterio Betances"
Bringing a laudanum to my ceaseless pain - Sophia Magaretta Hensley "Soothing"
Lotion:
Prophetic sandals and ambrosial lotion - Leyla Guirand "The Abstract Maker"
LSD:
At night I travelled everywhere on LSD - Mary Karr "For My Children"
Luminol:
Luminol was her favorite color - John Gallaher "And the Moon on Its Stem Will Steal You Away"
Lye:
Be free of lye, lime, and liars - Jill Khoury "Sleep Hygiene"
In a bath of oak ash lye and alum - Melissa Range "Kermes Red"
Macadam:
Reflected back from skidding black macadam - Michael Dickman "From the Canal"
Makeup:
In all the makeup she can muster - Patricia Goedicke "The Reading Club"
Caught Life with his make-up off - Samuel Hoffenstein "The Jester" [The Broadway Anthology]
With all her makeup shades of gray and red - Jonathan Price "My Infatuation with Chaos"
Medicine.
Monoxide:
Snow poisoned the color of monoxide - francine j. harris "you, old meany"
Morphine:
A gust of morphine hid you - Thom Gunn "Lament"
Steep'd amid honey'd morphine - Walt Whitman "Song of Myself"
Mortar.
Mothball:
Amongst the smells of mothballs and cigars - A.E. Stallings "The Doll House"
Myrrh.
Nacre:
Let the oyster cover me with layer on layer of nacre - Theodora Goss "Thumbelina"
Black lace against a sky of nacre - Frederic Manning "The Sign"
Narcotic:
Sweet poisons are narcotics for our tears - Natalie Clifford Barney "Easter Day"
And from its Bowl narcotic Joys beguile - Wallace Irwin "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Jr."
The hypnotist's narcotic of clarity - A. Van Jordan "Old Boy"
Neurotoxin:
The monarch butterfly of neurotoxins - Ennis Rook Bashe "How to Hallucinate Your Zombie Lover"
A mutant rose's neurotoxin - Jennifer Elise Foerster "Tuccenen C"
My dragon may be your neurotoxin - Dean Young "Handy Guide" [Poetry Nov. 2011]
Nicotine:
From the root of a nicotined tooth - William Archila "Spirits"
Noble Gas:
the stairs are white with noble gases - Lee Ballentine "Cryogenica"
I as a noble gas floated free of attachment - Monica Ferrell "Rime Riche"
Nucleotides:
Charmed conspiracy of nucleotides - Jaswinder Bolina "Phantom Camera"
Oil.
Ointment:
With your ointments mix your tears - "Centos and Suggestions" transl. and arranged by Rev. John Brownlie in Hymns from the Greek Offices
Nursed by earthly ointments - Pablo Neruda "Vegetation" transl. by Jack Schmitt
With precious ointment of affection - Walter S. Percy "The Risen Christ Means Victory"
Where the herbage is like sweet ointment - "XXII" transl. from Nahuatl by Daniel G. Brinton
Omega 3:
Leading us into a new dawn of Omega 3's & prosperity - Regie Cabico "A Carpapalooza: An American Anthem"
Ooze:
Bursting sewers ooze up from below - Claude McKay "Desolate" [Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, ed. by Countee Cullen, 1927]
With blood warm oozing from her wounded trust - Herman Melville "Clarel" [excerpt - Epilogue]
Some sorcerer of ooze and slime - Herbert Randall "Sundown on the Marshes"
Opiate/Opiod/Opium.
Ozone.
Paper.
Paraffin:
The unfinished poetry of the paraffin is pulled aside - Hua Xi "A Bookshelf"
Pleasure and Paraffin, lend us a smile - Henry S. Leigh "A Cockney's Evening Song"
Paste.
Pavement.
Penicillin:
As if it were penicillin or the speed of light - Mark Jarman "If I Were Paul"
Perfume.
Petrochemical:
A petrochemical addict in want of an antagonist - fahima ife "shamanism"
Petrochemical societies trying to hide the sun - John Trudell "Voices Catching Up/Lompoc Song"
Petroleum:
Inject direct the petroleum of salvation - Josh Pearce "Plastic Paradise Awaits" [Strange Horizons 2 Feb. 2025]
Philter:
Hoping such philtre may thy griefs appease - Euripedes "Hercules Distracted" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Baleful philters, withering spells - Eugene Lee-Hamilton "Isissimus"
Icy philters brim with scarlet foam - George Sterling "A Wine of Wizardry"
a southern philter with a touch of botulism - upfromsumdirt (Ron Davis) "Abstrack Africana"
Pill:
Split three pills with my ficus - Ruth Madievsky "Ficus"
Willing for us to polish off death's bitter pill - Harry Martinson "Aniara 5" transl. by Stephen Klass and Leif Sjöberg
Spelling words with pills spilled - Aaron Smith "Still Life with Antidepressants"
Pitch.
Plaster.
Plastic.
Plexiglass:
Stares caught in plexiglass - Cyree Jarelle Johnson "jersey fems in the philly zoo"
Phantom fists against the plexiglass of the living world - Nen G. Ramirez "Love poem with a dying cat"
Poison.
Porcelain.
Potion.
Poultice:
Kept a poultice of stars strapped to her hip - Roshani Chokshi "Miracle Babies"
Purell:
I'll unpack my dark heart and Purell my hands - Geoffrey Brock "Trip Hop"
Quinine:
Sauterne and quinine, saccharine and gall - Stephen Vincent Benet "Two More Muses"
Radioactive.
Resin.
Rosin:
Teardrops of rosin harden and shine - Minnie Bruce Pratt "The Subway Entrance"
Rouge:
A cunning dab of rouge the sun sent down - Fenton Johnson "Puck Goes to Court" [Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, ed. by Countee Cullen, 1927]
In rouge and ribbons dressed - Too-qua-stee [DeWitt Clinton Duncan] "The Dead Nation"
Rubber:
Never climb a rubber ladder - Calef Brown "Bossy Casey"
Rubber garden guarded by the weapons of heaven - Josh Pearce "Plastic Paradise Awaits" [Strange Horizons 2 Feb. 2025]
Rust.
Safety Glass:
Cracking him into squares of safety glass - Duane and Cathy Ackerson "Mirror Man"
Salt.
Saltpeter:
A brew of saltpeter and blackbirds - Rolando Kattan "Two-Blooded" transl. by Katherine M. Hedeen & Victor Rodriguez Núñez
Salve:
Charms to salve my griefs - Major Jackson "In the Eighties We Did the Wop"
Hurt and salve combining - Rumi "The Reed Flute's Song" transl. by Coleman Barks
Sap.
Sedative:
Never turn down a sedative - David Trinidad "Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera"
Serum:
The remedial serums of angry denial - Walter J. Kingsley "Lo, the Press Agent" [The Broadway Anthology]
A cracked snow globe whose magic pool drips serum - Cynthia Zarin "Orbit"
Shampoo:
Dress you in the foam of apricot shampoo - Yalie Saweda Kamara "Trim"
Silver Nitrate:
We resurrect them in silver nitrate - Sonya Taaffe "The Chymical Marriage"
Slime:
Lands of bitter slime where my voice blooms - Nicolás Guillén "Rivers" transl. by Roberto Marquez and David Arthur McMurray
Across uneven pavements sunk in slime - Amy Lowell "J--K Huysmans"
Beavers make a dam out of slime - Kunjana Parashar "In the Zoo" [Strange Horizons 17 February 2025]
Some sorcerer of ooze and slime - Herbert Randall "Sundown on the Marshes"
Snuff.
Soap.
Solvent:
cut like a solvent through any of my moods - Robert Frazier "A Crash Course in Lemon Physics"
This universal solvent swallows every hill - Angela Narciso Torres "Self-Portrait as Water"
So solvent a peace - John Updike "Endpoint"
Spirit Gum:
Patched him together with spirit gum and spare parts - Denise Dumars "The Golem"
Starch:
Sacraments of Clorox in the church of starch - Ted Kooser "Song of the Ironing Board"
Strychnine:
Strychnine and scouring powder - Judy Jordan "Prologue"
Styrofoam:
A spit the black threads into a styrofoam cup - Natalie Scenters-Zapico "There Is a Bird in My Mouth"
Sulfur Dioxide:
Lead paint and sulfur dioxide - Matthew Olzmann "Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now"
Tallow:
Rags and jags and yellow tallow candles - Robert Graves "The Cupboard"
Tallow ripple cleaving the bark - Jessica P. Wick "Sap and Superstition"
Tannin:
Bloodred with hemlock and cedar tannin - M. Bartley Seigel "At the Mouth of the Gratiot"
Tar.
Tarmac:
Past bulldozers and trucks pouring tarmac - Peter Balakian "Little Richard"
Tracks of brown and gold across the tarmac - Cynthia Zarin "Rainy Day Fugue"
Tear Gas:
Nostalgia and tear gas have the same acrid smack - A.E. Stallings "After a Greek Proverb"
Terrigen:
crystal shards of terrigen mist - Jena Osman "Mercury Rising (A Visualization)"
Thermite:
The deep mud burned under the thermite's breath - Lord Dunsany "A Dirge of Victory (Sonnet)"
Timber.
Tincture:
That sheds a baleful tincture o'er the eye of Reason - Mark Akenside "The Pleasures of Imagination Book. A Poem, in Three Books. III"
Some grains of night tincture the noontide air - Henry David Thoreau "The Fall of the Leaf"
By the blood-tinctured settings of the suns - Kostes Palamas "The Return" transl. by Aristides E. Phoutrides
The many-tinctured veins of precious marble - Felicia Hemans "The Abencerrage Canto III"
Untinctured with regrets - William Anderson "Landscape Lyrics No.III--Noonday"
Tobacco.
Tonic:
I offer these as tonic - Camisha L. Jones "Haunted"
Hair tonics by color like a spectrum - Diane Seuss "Six Unrhymed Sonnets"
Had their gin and tonic talks - Stephen Yenser "Vertumnal [excerpt]"
Toxic/Toxin.
Turpentine:
Requires turpentine stillness - Caroline Harper New "Ekphrasis"
No turpentine to cleanse or burn - Caroline Harper New "Ekphrasis"
Valium:
Some Valium cloudy mornings - Alise Alousi "What Every Driver Must Know"
Varnish:
The varnished, punctured skein of sky - Tony Hoagland "Frog Song"
Brushes brown varnish over the past - Ted Kooser "A Sepia Photograph"
Imbued with fruit and varnish - Rimbaud "The Minx" (translated by A.M. Juster)
By the light of unvarnish'd truth - Walter Richard Cassels "Hebe"
Vinyl:
I organize on vinyl and per diems - Russell Brakefield "Field Recordings"
who these vinyl weeds so irritate - Charles Coleman Finlay "Accidental Series"
The black vinyl divine who is winding this universe - Tiffany Higgins "Dance, Dance, While the Hive Collapses" [Poetry Jan. 2016]
Dozens of hot vinyl hearts - Kiki Petrosino "Lament"
Vitreous:
With sudden flash vitrescent sparks reveal - Erasmus Darwin "The Botanic Garden part 1: The Economy of Vegetation canto I"
The vitreous pour of the full moon - Walt Whitman "Song of Myself"
Vitriol [archaic for sulphuric acid]:
With marble-dust and vitriol - "Bogus Champagne" [The Continental Monthly March 1862]
That vitriolic atmosphere just outside the ever-eroding walls - Timons Esaias "Venusian Cuisine"
Bathed in vitriol twilights - Iris Tree "Streets"
Wax.
Whitewash:
Highways burnt then whitewashed - Alise Alousi "What Every Driver Must Know"
The adagio echoes in that whitewashed cave - Alexandra Lytton Regalado "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
Wicker:
Prepared in wicker vats the cheeses - Euripedes "The Cyclops" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Wooden.
See also (many things that ought to be here, too, are likely buried elsewhere):
Go to Potential Titles: Art/Craft: Tools and Materials [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Cloth/Fabric/Fiber - Things Made From [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Elements - Chemical [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Metals [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Plants [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Rocks [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Rocks - Pretty Ones [category].
Navigation Links:
Go to author indices.
Go to word indices.
Go to category indices.
Adobe:
Through adobe walls and secret gardens - Philip Levine "The Whole Soul"
Acetate:
The acetate tears of a flickering film - Mary Jo Bang "Part of a Larger Picture"
Alkali/Alkaline:
When the acid meets the alkali - "In Transitu" [The Continental Monthly v.II no.1, July 1862]
Keen as an acid for an alkali - James Russell Lowell "Fitz Adam's Story"
Disaster's alkaline kiss - D.A. Powell "Useless Landscape"
Alum:
Pierced by the radar alum of wasps - Paul Cameron Brown "The Necklace Garden"
In a bath of oak ash lye and alum - Melissa Range "Kermes Red"
Amyl Nitrate:
Of gnats, amyl nitrate, and goddamn rain - Randall Mann "The Fall of 1992, Gainesville, Florida"
Antidote.
Antioxidant:
Line their pantry shelves with the antioxidant beads - Crystal Sidell "The Truth About Doppelgangers"
Antiseptic:
Antiseptic thrill of green sawdust - Paul Cameron Brown "Slaughterhouse"
Cocooned in their antiseptic habitats - David C. Kopaska-Merkel "An Open Letter to Our Astronauts"
Antitoxin:
An antitoxin to the world's infections - Edgar Lee Masters "So We Grew Together"
Asbestos.
Asphalt.
Aspirin:
Aspirin in this sunset of roses - Frank O'Hara "Chez Jane"
Attar:
Stir the attar of unused air - Lola Ridge "Dedication"
Uttermost attar of the living rose - Francis Brett Young "Dead Poets"
Beeswax:
Nailed in lockers sealed with beeswax - Ed Lynskey "Mrs. Lincoln's Terror of Moths"
Benzene:
Benzine rinsings from the moon dissolve all - Hart Crane "Lachrymae Christi"
A smell of recently scattered benzene - José Mármol "Another April, Too Cruel" transl. by Eileen O'Connor
Betadine:
Wipe away the blood and the betadine - Mary Hickman "If the Heart Does Not Restart"
Bioluminescence/Luminescence.
Bitumen:
And with bitumen burn the brittle bays - Virgil "Eclogues VIII" (transl. not identified)
A wild and bituminous song - Joseph Victor von Scheffel "Asphaltum" transl. by Charles Leland
Bleach.
Blotting Paper:
Fog has been blotting paper to my tears - Dean Young "Son of Fog" [Poetry April 2005]
Botulism:
a southern philter with a touch of botulism - upfromsumdirt (Ron Davis) "Abstrack Africana"
Brimstone.
Brine.
Bromide:
To administer their own bromide of fire - Paul Cameron Brown "Lavender"
A bromide or a borderland candle - Cyrus Cassells "Courage Song for Scott Warren"
Bulletproof Glass:
Can't take a photo through the bulletproof glass - Alexandra Lytton Regalado "La Cachiporrista"
Carbon Dioxide:
Offering me their oxygen in exchange for my carbon dioxide - Jason Schneiderman "House with a Hot Tub and Pool"
Sun, phosphorus, CO2, prayer - L. Lamar Wilson "Lauren Oya Olamina Explains Earthseed to Ernest Hemingway"
Castor Oil:
douse this blackness in viscous castor oil - Neha Maqsood "Things I Do to Remember Home"
Catalyst.
Cellophane:
Spark and sear of holy cellophane - Allison Hutchcraft "Though from Here I Can't Smell the Smoke"
A rose made from cellophane - Gregory Orr "Domestic Life"
Celluloid:
Rise away with the celluloid spirits - Nancy Ellis Taylor "Voodoo Corner Bus Stop"
Cement.
Ceramic:
A tote bag full of ceramic souvenirs - Helene Achanzar "The only poem I can write"
Ceramic tributes to the moon - Ira Goga "The Kitchen, Indexed"
Found my body in ceramic pieces - jessica Care moore "She Was"
Could break their ceramic silence - Caroline Harper New "Patients Regain Song Before Speech"
Chalk.
Charcoal.
Chemical/Chemistry.
Chloroform:
The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform - William Ernest Henley "In Hospital IV. Before"
Clay.
Clorox:
Sacraments of Clorox in the church of starch - Ted Kooser "Song of the Ironing Board"
Coal.
Coal-Damp [any flammable gas in a coal mine]:
What wine of coal-damp He will pour - Cale Young Rice "The Immanent God"
Cocaine:
Serves cocaine in cornucopia - Mina Loy "Lunar Baedeker"
Cod Liver Oil:
Eat cod liver oil and oatmeal - Lou Barrett "Oliver Hill Hotel: 1932"
A liquor I mix'd with my cod-liver oil - Henry S. Leigh "Songs of the Sick Room No. 1: Cod Liver Oil"
Cologne:
His compound of cologne & corrosion - William Archila "Spirits"
Concrete.
Cordial.
Cordite:
The mist of the cordite's gloom - George Blackstone Field "The Mustering of the Legion"
Cork:
Floating corks in the Dead Sea - Ana Castillo "Tell Me to Live for Something"
Cork the mouths of a thousand bottles - A.R. Narayanan "Man"
Uncork a bottle of that curious wine - Philip Lybbe Powys Lybbe "The Lay of the Sheriff"
Curare:
Which proves a curare for the heart - A. Van Jordan "Old Boy"
Detergent:
Obsessed with laundry detergent and floor wax - Gwynne Garfinkle "Misogyny" [Strange Horizons 13 April 2015]
That fantastic last whiff of lavender detergent - Shara Lessley "Sisyphus"
Deuterium:
Our ship is fueled by a deuterium iceball - Robert Randolph Medcalf, Jr. "Ice Magic"
Looked every bit as real as the deuterium - Robert Randolph Medcalf, Jr. "Ice Magic"
Diesel:
A fast-driving diesel flatbed of felled trees - Nickole Brown "Black bird, red wing"
On the subway huffing diesel and cigarettes - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha "bad road"
Craft the scene in recycled blood and stale diesel - Lalini Shanela Ranaraja "Tricona" [Strange Horizons 14 March 2022]
Dioxide:
Steam of dioxides of carbon and sulfur - Timothy Donnelly "Globus Hystericus"
Dross.
Drug.
Dry Ice:
While she burns like a sack of dry ice - Yusef Komunyakaa "You and I Are Disappearing"
Dung:
Polluted with the dung of demons damn'd - James Ewing Cooley "The Spawn of Ixion"
Dynamite.
Dye.
Elastic.
Elixir.
Emetic:
Bloomed like a neon emetic - Aimee Le "Faith"
Enamel.
Ether.
Fat.
Fiberglass.
Fiberoptic:
the illicit behind a fiberoptic veil - Jzl Jmz "Exhibition"
Fluorescence.
Fluorocarbons:
Song of fluorocarbons and roosters - Urayoan Noel "cinquains written during a tropical storm"
Fly Ash:
a city that too builds its water from fly ash - Jake Skeets "Sonoran Desert Poem"
Foil.
Formaldehyde:
Floating in a cloud of formaldehyde - Paul Cameron Brown "Point Spread"
To smother the smell of formaldehyde - Hilarie Jones "The Teacher"
Frankincense:
Upwafting to the skies no more their frankincense - Euripedes "Andromache" transl. by Michael Wodhull
No frankincense perfumed Heaven's vacant shrine - Euripedes "Helen" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Blessed by the frankincense of fragrant fir - Dana Gioia "Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir"
The necessary pigments and frankincense - Bruce Smith "Beautiful Throat"
Fuel.
Gas.
Gasoline.
Gelignite:
From gas and protest to gelignite and sten - Seamus Heaney "Whatever You Say Say Nothing"
As influenced by gelignite and bombs - H.H.U., Northhamptonshire Regt. "To My Bath" [The Anzac Book: Written and Illustrated in Gallipoli by the Men of Anzac, 1916]
Glass.
Glucose:
Gild his words with glucose - May Chong "Catering"
Glue.
Grease.
Gum:
Gums and amber found beneath the line - Mark Akenside "The Virtuoso. In Imitation of Spenser's Style and Stanza."
Patched him together with spirit gum and spare parts - Denise Dumars "The Golem"
Nor cared a wad of gum how I would feel - Wallace Irwin "An Inside Con to Refined Guys"
Heavy Metals:
They will speak of heavy metals in the air - Mara Pastor "Entonces Mi Hija/Then My Daughter" transl. by María José Giménez and Anna Rosenwong
Hydrofluorocarbons:
Only the hydrofluorocarbons know for sure - S. R. Compton "The Leonids, 11/18, 2002"
Incense.
Kerosene.
Kevlar:
Doses of patience and some Kevlar smiles - Geoffrey Brock "Trip Hop"
Dressed in leather and Kevlar - John M. Ford "Troy: the Movie"
A kevlar of tenderness enveloping me - Cyree Jarelle Johnson "jersey fems in the philly zoo"
Lacquer:
Sealed by terminology's lacquer - Diane Ackerman "Letter to Dr. B--"
Teetering on red-lacquered stems - John Gould Fletcher "Green Symphony"
Peach and plum in lacquered dyes - Edmund Gosse "A Dream of November"
The liquor of your laughter and the lacquer of your limbs - Emanuel Morgan "Opus 6"
Laudanum:
Laudanum by the bitter spoonful - Martin Espada "The Five Horses of Doctor Ramon Emeterio Betances"
Bringing a laudanum to my ceaseless pain - Sophia Magaretta Hensley "Soothing"
Lotion:
Prophetic sandals and ambrosial lotion - Leyla Guirand "The Abstract Maker"
LSD:
At night I travelled everywhere on LSD - Mary Karr "For My Children"
Luminol:
Luminol was her favorite color - John Gallaher "And the Moon on Its Stem Will Steal You Away"
Lye:
Be free of lye, lime, and liars - Jill Khoury "Sleep Hygiene"
In a bath of oak ash lye and alum - Melissa Range "Kermes Red"
Macadam:
Reflected back from skidding black macadam - Michael Dickman "From the Canal"
Makeup:
In all the makeup she can muster - Patricia Goedicke "The Reading Club"
Caught Life with his make-up off - Samuel Hoffenstein "The Jester" [The Broadway Anthology]
With all her makeup shades of gray and red - Jonathan Price "My Infatuation with Chaos"
Medicine.
Monoxide:
Snow poisoned the color of monoxide - francine j. harris "you, old meany"
Morphine:
A gust of morphine hid you - Thom Gunn "Lament"
Steep'd amid honey'd morphine - Walt Whitman "Song of Myself"
Mortar.
Mothball:
Amongst the smells of mothballs and cigars - A.E. Stallings "The Doll House"
Myrrh.
Nacre:
Let the oyster cover me with layer on layer of nacre - Theodora Goss "Thumbelina"
Black lace against a sky of nacre - Frederic Manning "The Sign"
Narcotic:
Sweet poisons are narcotics for our tears - Natalie Clifford Barney "Easter Day"
And from its Bowl narcotic Joys beguile - Wallace Irwin "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Jr."
The hypnotist's narcotic of clarity - A. Van Jordan "Old Boy"
Neurotoxin:
The monarch butterfly of neurotoxins - Ennis Rook Bashe "How to Hallucinate Your Zombie Lover"
A mutant rose's neurotoxin - Jennifer Elise Foerster "Tuccenen C"
My dragon may be your neurotoxin - Dean Young "Handy Guide" [Poetry Nov. 2011]
Nicotine:
From the root of a nicotined tooth - William Archila "Spirits"
Noble Gas:
the stairs are white with noble gases - Lee Ballentine "Cryogenica"
I as a noble gas floated free of attachment - Monica Ferrell "Rime Riche"
Nucleotides:
Charmed conspiracy of nucleotides - Jaswinder Bolina "Phantom Camera"
Oil.
Ointment:
With your ointments mix your tears - "Centos and Suggestions" transl. and arranged by Rev. John Brownlie in Hymns from the Greek Offices
Nursed by earthly ointments - Pablo Neruda "Vegetation" transl. by Jack Schmitt
With precious ointment of affection - Walter S. Percy "The Risen Christ Means Victory"
Where the herbage is like sweet ointment - "XXII" transl. from Nahuatl by Daniel G. Brinton
Omega 3:
Leading us into a new dawn of Omega 3's & prosperity - Regie Cabico "A Carpapalooza: An American Anthem"
Ooze:
Bursting sewers ooze up from below - Claude McKay "Desolate" [Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, ed. by Countee Cullen, 1927]
With blood warm oozing from her wounded trust - Herman Melville "Clarel" [excerpt - Epilogue]
Some sorcerer of ooze and slime - Herbert Randall "Sundown on the Marshes"
Opiate/Opiod/Opium.
Ozone.
Paper.
Paraffin:
The unfinished poetry of the paraffin is pulled aside - Hua Xi "A Bookshelf"
Pleasure and Paraffin, lend us a smile - Henry S. Leigh "A Cockney's Evening Song"
Paste.
Pavement.
Penicillin:
As if it were penicillin or the speed of light - Mark Jarman "If I Were Paul"
Perfume.
Petrochemical:
A petrochemical addict in want of an antagonist - fahima ife "shamanism"
Petrochemical societies trying to hide the sun - John Trudell "Voices Catching Up/Lompoc Song"
Petroleum:
Inject direct the petroleum of salvation - Josh Pearce "Plastic Paradise Awaits" [Strange Horizons 2 Feb. 2025]
Philter:
Hoping such philtre may thy griefs appease - Euripedes "Hercules Distracted" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Baleful philters, withering spells - Eugene Lee-Hamilton "Isissimus"
Icy philters brim with scarlet foam - George Sterling "A Wine of Wizardry"
a southern philter with a touch of botulism - upfromsumdirt (Ron Davis) "Abstrack Africana"
Pill:
Split three pills with my ficus - Ruth Madievsky "Ficus"
Willing for us to polish off death's bitter pill - Harry Martinson "Aniara 5" transl. by Stephen Klass and Leif Sjöberg
Spelling words with pills spilled - Aaron Smith "Still Life with Antidepressants"
Pitch.
Plaster.
Plastic.
Plexiglass:
Stares caught in plexiglass - Cyree Jarelle Johnson "jersey fems in the philly zoo"
Phantom fists against the plexiglass of the living world - Nen G. Ramirez "Love poem with a dying cat"
Poison.
Porcelain.
Potion.
Poultice:
Kept a poultice of stars strapped to her hip - Roshani Chokshi "Miracle Babies"
Purell:
I'll unpack my dark heart and Purell my hands - Geoffrey Brock "Trip Hop"
Quinine:
Sauterne and quinine, saccharine and gall - Stephen Vincent Benet "Two More Muses"
Radioactive.
Resin.
Rosin:
Teardrops of rosin harden and shine - Minnie Bruce Pratt "The Subway Entrance"
Rouge:
A cunning dab of rouge the sun sent down - Fenton Johnson "Puck Goes to Court" [Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, ed. by Countee Cullen, 1927]
In rouge and ribbons dressed - Too-qua-stee [DeWitt Clinton Duncan] "The Dead Nation"
Rubber:
Never climb a rubber ladder - Calef Brown "Bossy Casey"
Rubber garden guarded by the weapons of heaven - Josh Pearce "Plastic Paradise Awaits" [Strange Horizons 2 Feb. 2025]
Rust.
Safety Glass:
Cracking him into squares of safety glass - Duane and Cathy Ackerson "Mirror Man"
Salt.
Saltpeter:
A brew of saltpeter and blackbirds - Rolando Kattan "Two-Blooded" transl. by Katherine M. Hedeen & Victor Rodriguez Núñez
Salve:
Charms to salve my griefs - Major Jackson "In the Eighties We Did the Wop"
Hurt and salve combining - Rumi "The Reed Flute's Song" transl. by Coleman Barks
Sap.
Sedative:
Never turn down a sedative - David Trinidad "Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera"
Serum:
The remedial serums of angry denial - Walter J. Kingsley "Lo, the Press Agent" [The Broadway Anthology]
A cracked snow globe whose magic pool drips serum - Cynthia Zarin "Orbit"
Shampoo:
Dress you in the foam of apricot shampoo - Yalie Saweda Kamara "Trim"
Silver Nitrate:
We resurrect them in silver nitrate - Sonya Taaffe "The Chymical Marriage"
Slime:
Lands of bitter slime where my voice blooms - Nicolás Guillén "Rivers" transl. by Roberto Marquez and David Arthur McMurray
Across uneven pavements sunk in slime - Amy Lowell "J--K Huysmans"
Beavers make a dam out of slime - Kunjana Parashar "In the Zoo" [Strange Horizons 17 February 2025]
Some sorcerer of ooze and slime - Herbert Randall "Sundown on the Marshes"
Snuff.
Soap.
Solvent:
cut like a solvent through any of my moods - Robert Frazier "A Crash Course in Lemon Physics"
This universal solvent swallows every hill - Angela Narciso Torres "Self-Portrait as Water"
So solvent a peace - John Updike "Endpoint"
Spirit Gum:
Patched him together with spirit gum and spare parts - Denise Dumars "The Golem"
Starch:
Sacraments of Clorox in the church of starch - Ted Kooser "Song of the Ironing Board"
Strychnine:
Strychnine and scouring powder - Judy Jordan "Prologue"
Styrofoam:
A spit the black threads into a styrofoam cup - Natalie Scenters-Zapico "There Is a Bird in My Mouth"
Sulfur Dioxide:
Lead paint and sulfur dioxide - Matthew Olzmann "Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now"
Tallow:
Rags and jags and yellow tallow candles - Robert Graves "The Cupboard"
Tallow ripple cleaving the bark - Jessica P. Wick "Sap and Superstition"
Tannin:
Bloodred with hemlock and cedar tannin - M. Bartley Seigel "At the Mouth of the Gratiot"
Tar.
Tarmac:
Past bulldozers and trucks pouring tarmac - Peter Balakian "Little Richard"
Tracks of brown and gold across the tarmac - Cynthia Zarin "Rainy Day Fugue"
Tear Gas:
Nostalgia and tear gas have the same acrid smack - A.E. Stallings "After a Greek Proverb"
Terrigen:
crystal shards of terrigen mist - Jena Osman "Mercury Rising (A Visualization)"
Thermite:
The deep mud burned under the thermite's breath - Lord Dunsany "A Dirge of Victory (Sonnet)"
Timber.
Tincture:
That sheds a baleful tincture o'er the eye of Reason - Mark Akenside "The Pleasures of Imagination Book. A Poem, in Three Books. III"
Some grains of night tincture the noontide air - Henry David Thoreau "The Fall of the Leaf"
By the blood-tinctured settings of the suns - Kostes Palamas "The Return" transl. by Aristides E. Phoutrides
The many-tinctured veins of precious marble - Felicia Hemans "The Abencerrage Canto III"
Untinctured with regrets - William Anderson "Landscape Lyrics No.III--Noonday"
Tobacco.
Tonic:
I offer these as tonic - Camisha L. Jones "Haunted"
Hair tonics by color like a spectrum - Diane Seuss "Six Unrhymed Sonnets"
Had their gin and tonic talks - Stephen Yenser "Vertumnal [excerpt]"
Toxic/Toxin.
Turpentine:
Requires turpentine stillness - Caroline Harper New "Ekphrasis"
No turpentine to cleanse or burn - Caroline Harper New "Ekphrasis"
Valium:
Some Valium cloudy mornings - Alise Alousi "What Every Driver Must Know"
Varnish:
The varnished, punctured skein of sky - Tony Hoagland "Frog Song"
Brushes brown varnish over the past - Ted Kooser "A Sepia Photograph"
Imbued with fruit and varnish - Rimbaud "The Minx" (translated by A.M. Juster)
By the light of unvarnish'd truth - Walter Richard Cassels "Hebe"
Vinyl:
I organize on vinyl and per diems - Russell Brakefield "Field Recordings"
who these vinyl weeds so irritate - Charles Coleman Finlay "Accidental Series"
The black vinyl divine who is winding this universe - Tiffany Higgins "Dance, Dance, While the Hive Collapses" [Poetry Jan. 2016]
Dozens of hot vinyl hearts - Kiki Petrosino "Lament"
Vitreous:
With sudden flash vitrescent sparks reveal - Erasmus Darwin "The Botanic Garden part 1: The Economy of Vegetation canto I"
The vitreous pour of the full moon - Walt Whitman "Song of Myself"
Vitriol [archaic for sulphuric acid]:
With marble-dust and vitriol - "Bogus Champagne" [The Continental Monthly March 1862]
That vitriolic atmosphere just outside the ever-eroding walls - Timons Esaias "Venusian Cuisine"
Bathed in vitriol twilights - Iris Tree "Streets"
Wax.
Whitewash:
Highways burnt then whitewashed - Alise Alousi "What Every Driver Must Know"
The adagio echoes in that whitewashed cave - Alexandra Lytton Regalado "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
Wicker:
Prepared in wicker vats the cheeses - Euripedes "The Cyclops" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Wooden.
See also (many things that ought to be here, too, are likely buried elsewhere):
Go to Potential Titles: Art/Craft: Tools and Materials [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Cloth/Fabric/Fiber - Things Made From [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Elements - Chemical [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Metals [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Plants [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Rocks [category].
Go to Potential Titles: Rocks - Pretty Ones [category].
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