Live Wire
It waits inside your chest
humming with electricity at all hours,
and like the sizzling of a live wire
it threatens to spark, and burn.
When it ignites, your nerves go haywire
they force your muscles to contract and flop about
twitching like frogs in a bubbling pot.
Your insides become a game of ping pong
where every shot is a hit, and every sound is an alarm bell;
you’ll rack up points in the thousands
except there won’t be any prizes.
The relays connecting through your arms and thighs
send confusing signals in a code your body can’t identify:
stay run rest freak out calm down.
Your vocal cords fray and sputter out from the overload.
Your lungs exhale embers like shotgun shells
in out in out in out
painting the walls of your shelter with bullet holes
alerting any and all who trespass
that there is something unstable there.
Your world tilts and spins on a needlepoint
shooting you out of the Goldilocks zone and into a black hole
a void where no source of power or light
could ever penetrate.
“Breathe”, it’s so simple:
don’t think about it
don’t worry about it
put your head between your knees and pray about it;
hope that you have a spare pair of cutters nearby
to put that live wire out.
Enjoyed what you read? Consider leaving a comment, clap, or tip! You can subscribe to me over on Vocal.Media where I originally posted this work, and you can also follow me on my Facebook page where I try to post updates on current and future work regularly.
