--- date: 2017-06-03 type: post title: Bruise Vision categories: - Poem ratings: G tags: - Poetry - Mental Health ---

### 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?