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/
Fevers of the Mind 
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