
I don’t need anesthesia
He pushes a button and the chair slowly mechanically moves leans back pushes me open w i d e W I D E R I’ve got the whole world in my mouth my goggles fog seeing trauma in my jaw a root/canal a partial? a date I can't recall and the conversation morphs to my sleep meds and allergies latex But I stop talking once sirens blare I don't reach for it Keep my fists under my lap clutched clenched I no longer search drill or load ammo Suck, breathe, clear I think the steps as he's covering my mouth backwards counting from 12, 11, 10... Drifting Tumbling 6, 5...canvas duffeling falling camels Fucking punching the sand my guts spill out of poetry At least these days, my mind I know the difference between a memory and a mind trick Margaret Viboolsittiseri (aka Maggs Vibo) works in print, broadcast, special events, glitch media, and online. She is a contributor for Poem Atlas and has experimental art in the winnow magazine, Coven Poetry, Ice Floe Press, The Babel Tower Notice Board, ang(st), The Wombwell Rainbow. Recent anthologies include Poem Atlas ‘aww-struck’, Steel Incisors, Fevers of the Mind Press Presents the Poets of 2020 (January, 2021) and ‘My teeth don’t chew on shrapnel’: an anthology of poetry by military veterans (Oxford Brookes, 2020). She tweets @maggsvibo and her website is https://www.maggsvibo.com/
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