There's no accounting for taste.

Somewhere in some DNA strand, or actually in every DNA strand I suppose, is some mistake inside of me. Not a mistake to the point that I'm necessarily handicapped... some people would say it's a blessing. That I'm not missing much, or that I'm lucky for the lack. And these DNA strands keep getting replicated into RNA, and float around to the right spot and make a new strand of DNA, but they keep fucking up over and over again. The same garbled code for type 2 taste receptors making my tongue wrong over and over again. As a test, I put phenylthiocarbamide and 6-n-propylthiouracil on my tongue, and nothing happens.

Some biology class in some distant memory is all crashing metal and flickering lights falling from the ceiling onto lab benches, while I sit there with some synthetic chemicals in my mouth. Everyone's running to bathrooms, water fountains, and sinks... panic ensues... and I sit numb, or not even numb, but just completely unaware of the gravity of the situation.

Banana and orange peels, coffee, beer, olives, tonic water... It's not like there's something missing to the flavor. There's not even a particular aspect of the taste to which I can point and figure, "That is where what I'm supposed to be tasting this." Taste isn't a place, or a quantity. No discrete measurements can convey complex chemical reactions. Literally, completely ignorant. Bitter truth, sorrow, enemies, words, criticism, tears, cold. Infinitely complex imaginary word associations, feelings, nuances, colors, and shades of colors. I'm ignorant. It's honestly not a big deal, really. It's just what it implies. Sour. Check. Savory. Check. Salty. Check. Sweet. Check. All very significant tastes... or at least significant to me. I can savor things. I've tasted sour grapes. I know what someone means when they say they're salty. I've tasted sweet. They all seem so important. But.. Bitter. Negative. Am I missing a lot? Can I say that outside is bitter cold without feeling like a charlatan or a symbol impostor? Can I even feel bitter if I've never tasted it?