Coming home from the doctor's with a new prescription for migraine— After I take it, it's hard to tell if the sleepy exhaustion that descends is a side effect. She'd asked: what's keeping you awake, what's keeping you stressed? Let's just say it's been a long time since a day simply stretched, a clean cotton sheet; mild ripples. I pack ice cubes into a flask before filling it with water. I'm always being reminded to hydrate, even through the suffering. My tongue flicks over the edges of my teeth, feels the gaps marking previous extractions. I can't think of the word maw without thinking of a portal to some layered underworld. Relatives and other people I don't even know huddle in every corner, keeping a running tally of my transgressions. Someone has turned up the heat, and I'm struggling with the zipper of a parka. If I knew how to be a fish or a bird, I'd want nothing but blue.
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.