i am
slow to adapt
new stimuli
become
instant
anxieties
until i can
manage to
pick apart
the pieces
and reshape
them into
a part of
the background
noise humming
stinging nettles
an incessant
biting of a
thousand gnats

a panel and
a reading at an
event i already
am dreading
after weeks
spent in hotels
across texas

on the wrong
end of the
disassembly line
a series of
open wounds
turned into a
brittle scab

slowly coming
to terms with
one disaster only
to watch them
pile up down
the highway
in front of me

the hawks hang
suspended above
the brown fields
freshly tilled
i am a rabbit
fearfully hopping
seeking safety
in an open plain
my heartbeat sending
spirals across
the loose dirt
inconsequential
signs of alien
life in this terrarium
of tortured sighs