Bruise Vision

Jun 3, 2017 • 392 words • 2 minutes
| Poetry | Mental Health | rated G

I

Geese Level:
Unnerving

Expect:
Anxiety

A hundred geese overhead —
    A thousand —
        A million —

Heady scent of premonition.
Acrid tang of ill omens.
Portents.
Too much meaning
    In too small a space.

II

Geese Level:
Noise-Cancelling Headphones

Expect:
auditory aberrations

Geese are a byproduct of laminar shear stress
    Of two layers of phantasmagorical
        Newtonian fluids,
    Which is why they’re often seen on a plane.
A thin, sort-of Truth
    From a sort of thin layer
        geese chromatography.

III

Geese Level:
Eldrich

Expect:
red tint to vision; hot flashes

As the dove bears the olive branch,
    so to the goose bears the wand
        that withers all it touches.
A wand of nightshade,
    Core of tainted silver.
A wand of obscure origin,
    The goose surely stole it.
Malice begets malice.

IV

Geese Level:
Beyond Comprehension

Expect:
confusion; nausea; sweating; racing pulse

We know not the transgression,
    the origin -
We know not the punishment,
    only the terror.

V

Geese Level:
Excruciating

Expect:
pounding heart; tunnel vision; racing thoughts; black outs; blood pouring from ears

Geas
    Wing
        Dark
            Horizon

VI

Geese Level:
Terrifying

Expect:
tinnitus; piloerection; shortness of breath; uneven gait

I’d rather owls.
Owls, as though geese were turned inside out,
    made less evil.
Still portentous,
    Still momentous,
    Just less terrifying.
Owls are okay.
I can think about owls.

VII

Geese Level:
Uncomfortable

Expect:
subdermal itching; formication

Life within a comfortable grid.
Parallel lines
    Interrupting narrowing circles
    Of birds in flight.
Travel in straight lines.
Turn at right angles.
Trace the roof of your mouth
    With wet tongue.

I’m not afraid of geese anymore
    Because I can step on them now.
I’m big enough.

VIII

Geese Level:
Birds

Expect:
birds

Ritual thinking
    Driven by geese —
    By lines, by grids, by food —
    By numbers and neat delineation.
And I’m left with questions:
    Why are they so portentous?
    Why the anxiety?
Or maybe:
    Did I take my meds this morning?

Failing that,
    Can I just have the comfort of prayer
    Or the ecstasy of signs
        Without the bleak paranoia
        Over circling birds?