we have poems
about madness
and poems written
in states of madness
no poems yet about
the guitar amp buzzing
dark electric fuzz
of the madness sparked
coming off psychmeds
we lack poems about
the inner fast-motion
tectonic mortar and pestle
funny car fuck up
metabolic cataclysm
of reducing lexapro benzos
seroquel risperdal trazodone zyprexa
indeed more poems
are needed about
the sludge avalanche
transistor radio
crackle-to-explosion
elephant collapsing
shocked with methamphetamines
poised on crumbling ramparts
overlooking seas of swamp water
pulsed with armies of electric eels
you can’t work
organs revolt
no sanctuary
for a brain
seemingly pointed
only toward death
till some nautical boundary
is crossed
the senses calm
like the equation
for a nuclear explosion
gradually erasing itself
clumped numbers
alphabet city lines
cryptic clusters dissolving
until all that remains is
the empty board
permitting
different formulas
of perception
finally
***
Dan Hanrahan is a writer, musician, translator and theater artist. He lives in Chicago, where he works as a language tutor in Spanish and Portuguese.
***
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