Straight Lines

My body revolts

suppressed

movement at a breakneck pace

C a l m s nerves

it appears like joy- mixed

up

I’ll conjure up checklists

large looping letters

notes on the margins

next to a black ball point pen

additions I’d etch into my brain

in a hurry

I’d remember

a badge she pinned on me young-

capable

I struggled.

A wire unhooked in recent years

backlog of data to be processed-

Later, I insisted

Later,

the nebula slips

pulling flares

hives erupt across my skin from sunlight

grass

dust

air

Life

My temper burns over a plastic lid

the violence of its placement

askew

disrupted the straight

line

The glitch pulls my feet up

into an orange sky

dumping out redacted

copper

pennies

they fall heavy onto the cold cement-

defeated

I’m still upside down

blood rushing to my head-

I’m purple

I hear someone say

Steady,

Not here.

Implosion

I’m on a feather bed

Too soft

If you asked

My words have no space

in this room

Or in my lined head

It flushes from my skin as liquid

willow trails

of water

long inky hair

Where

Why

it comes

sinking stones

It does.

It clutches -

sharpened claws puncturing

my aorta

thah dum thah dum

the beat reflects in wide eyes

thah dum thah dum

solid

numb