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still haven’t run out of ink

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“Reader: perhaps you’re a frequent fainter and are familiar with the poetry of the matter. I doff my hat to you.”
— Stephen Kuusisto, "A Valediction of Fainting"

Faint

October 13, 2018 by Brian Fay in Poetry

Vision narrows. The mind lets go of the duties of the body. Things such as breathing, beating the heart, making words. Yet a part of the mind is still wide awake. It turns on the silent alarm. The flashing light atop the ship's bridge. We are going down. Mayday. Abandon ship. That small part of the brain, buried in our evolutionary past like some fossil, triggers a little language. I say, I not good. You hear, uh-nuh-guh. Then even that small part of my mind comes to a stop. Your eyes widen, your heart beats a moment sooner, your brain synapses fire lightning without thunder. You reach for me. Catch me, maybe. Help me down to ground. I won't know. You'll have to tell me all this later when I return to the world. My vision coming back. As I look up into the light of concern, a candle flickering in the breeze of my returning breath.

with apologies to Stephen Kuusisto

October 13, 2018 /Brian Fay
Stephen Kuusisto, Fainting, prose poetry
Poetry
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