An Opioid Moon

“Manganese Moon” by Ann Craven

 

underneath the round gaze

of an opioid moon

he suffers no sleep

kept apart from his dreams

of a painless old age

held in place

by the icy blue bonds

of a wintry despair

the cold light of the night

sears the air

burns his breath

every exhale

a whisper of prayer

for a clear minded morning

a sobering sunrise

of sorrowful thoughts

about living in snatches

between heavy dosages

body and mind numbing

intervals measuring

secants of clocks

who cut time into

broad languid wedges

too hot and too cold

of a nonce all at once

a biopsychology

thrown out of balance

insensible but for odd

now-and-then slivers

of miniscule moments

the treatment alas

comes as hard as the pain

dear the cost

sheer the terror

afflicting addicting

the living of life

underneath the round gaze

of an opioid moon

Pharmacopeia

“Comfortably Numb” by Mario Sanchez Nevado

 

vitreous mosaics

of chaotic yellow-green

arrogant ampules

archaeology discovers

under unmade beds

tell their decadent

broken glass histories

in ancient cut

opioid hieroglyphs

tinted by tears

painless bodies

cannot decipher

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Mood Medicinal

 

“The Approaching Moonlit Rainstorm” by George Hunter Tyneside

 

haggard mountains

hang listless

under light of a

narcotic moon

birds high in their

settles asleep

in the syrupy

sedative air

one sober gray owl

scolding the sky

for its fitful explosions

black bats on the wing

wraiths immune to the

night’s metaphysics

while down below

reach of the memory

inside the wood

and the glass

beneath torture

of frangible linens

the human pain

swallowed by

capsules of colors

a few quiet hours

metabolized moments

insensible to the

red rage of an

imminent dawn

Under the Knife

“A Broken Eye Still Cries” by Marsha Elliott

 

 

counting backwards into the ether

rush of moments remembered

illogical sequence of images

flash like the frames of a movie reel

speeding through sprockets

a ratcheting ratcheting diminuendo

pulls consciousness deep

down and down to the void

the black bottom of nothing

where pain can no longer be felt

but is nonetheless

horridly dreamt and imagined

aware of the cutting

through gristle and bone

vicious violent strokes

precise surgical actions

in synch with unhearable

rhythmical beats of insidious

heart and lung pumping machines

life no longer completely contained

to this flesh and blood entity

shared now instead with

strange grim apparatus

inanimate engines and objects

of rubber and plastic and steel

where the unsleeping soul

finds uncomfortable annex

and desperate prayer

races to and fro coursing through

stiff inarticulate hoses and tubes

back and forth between

mindful and mindless receptacles

frantic in search of a terrified voice

MS

 

“Time Bomb 3” by Margaret Evangeline

 
whirling swirling

a chaos of fragmented

fossilized energy

dinosaur breath

bathes the brainstem

with paleo-memory

protean messages

dizzy disjointed

surround in a swarm

that vertebral column

remarkably upright

cylindrical hub with

its dorsal identity

coping with failures

fine motor skills

plagued by neuropathy

instinct and ancestral

impulse impeded

by necrotized gaps

locomotion forestalled

finds frustration

unable to transit

from motive to muscle

reliance on agents

of auto-immunity

thwarted confused by

a cruel transformation

from allies to enemies

wherefore the treason

by tissues of myelin

mysteries veiled

somewhere anciently

hidden in mist

beyond rhyme

and fraught reach

of a limited science

biology courting

unwitting conspiracy

nullified senses

inflicting impaired

sight and speech

in a wide constellation

of symptoms who

deaden the spirit

weaken the will

stealing grace

from the elegant

primal mechanics of

moving through life

Nociception

 

“Abstract Head – Dumb Pain” by Alexei Jawlensky

 

 

sink into the news
diagnosis prognosis
mere clinical sentences
strings of neat nouns
verbs and adjectives
uttered with clean cut
thoracic dispassion just
let the words flash their
sharp flames through
your brain “acute pain”
“irreversible damage”
and “ten on the scale”
nothing left but the
learning to “live with it”
drawing some shallow
relief from a blunted
dull thudding narcosis
where dreams can be
dreamed into poems
envy felt for unfeeling
afflictions paralysis
coma or merely sweet
onset of hypoesthesia
what bliss is the sound
of perpetual numb

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Last I Remember

“Surgery” by Van Benfo

poured myself
down on blue
hospital sheets
amid whispers
of cool stainless
steel and polite
halting beeps of
machines all
discussing my
swirling descent
to unconscious
celebrity baring
a fine purpled
torso so handsomely
even the seen-it-all
ceiling tiles gave
begrudging applause
as the thin whirr
and whine thrown
by surgical saws
found a chink in
the kip of my ears

(originally posted January 2014)

Curves

“Abstract Head: Pain” by Alexei Jawlensky

(Originally posted February 2014)
 

finding curves in the wounds
was surprising
the pain always angular
all hard and sharp
acute corners
pushed up under muscle
where only the dirty moons
rising from sickly brown bottles
and bedsheets
give comfort of two or three
midnight click hours
of crippling clocks
as the curves of the wounds
swallow life bit by bit
mean and raw with their red
violent purpose

Flying Monkeys

“Black and White Abstract” by Nicole Cohen

 

(Originally posted here June, 2013)

missing late meds
tatters night into
cut scraps of sleep
scissored by terrors
unnamable, faceless
repeatedly wakening
shuddering screams
inexplicable but for
persistent pain deep
in the center of me
flying monkeys inflicted
some seven years back
with plague-ridden teeth
when chewing my
breastbone to pulp

 

 

Overprescribed

“Drug Abuse” by Angu Walters

capsules of sanity
tablets of bravery
consciousness addled
by painkilling chemistry
left in the half-light
of utter dependence
a life inauthentic
one cadre of shadows
exchanged for another
will time tell the tale
whether treatments
prove better or worse
than afflictions

the trinity essence
of human identity
heart mind and soul
find connection
by delicate meshed
metaphysical membrane
connections indifferently
severed by dull
pharmaceutical knives
in the quelling of
pain and depression
collateral damage
the self can’t survive

in the effort
to overcome suffering
physic and psychic
rebalanced arranging
a new personality
lost of original tendencies
sapped of vitality
trapped in a fugue
of unrealized addiction
content to continue
the journey unwary
the path has been altered
away from one’s dreams