By Kit Willihnganz, Kentucky
What terrible memory
has exploded in my brain,
like artillery bursting into action
causing nerves to fire
random and blinding?
Let this war end, I pray,
but the pain keeps me
struggling through dark and silence.
I try to negotiate a ceasefire
with heating pads and pills
but I begin to think
that this war must come from
deeper inside me that my nerves,
down past the blood-brain barrier
to my mind.
This ache begins there
with my toxic recollections-
that first love I threw away
the parents I let down
the sister whose head I keep butting.
One of these must be responsible.
Why else would I tell
the ER doc that I need to be forgiven?
