Alexis (Greek for defender of mankind)

I want a prickly pear but all I've got is a memory.

I only ever had one once but it was splendid. The skin a nice tropical green, acting like its own little undiscovered island with bumps all up and down it (the prickly part I s'pose). So you look at it and you're thinking, why should I want to eat this? what's it gonna be like? Then you take a knife and cut it open (or maybe you don't, but if you're me you take a knife and cut it open). Then you sigh, and you thank something - God or Darwinism, or Chaos, for pleasant surprises. You peel back the soft skin and there is the most beautiful shade of magenta you ever saw, a discontinued shade of lipstick, not exactly juicy but more watery and delicate. It smells just like it looks- watery and delicate and lipsticky. You take that in for a moment, share it with your friends, take a picture and then you eat. Good lord it tastes like perfume. It tastes like a flower.

disclaimer: this memory may have been embellished over time.