This selection, chosen by guest editor Kirsten Kowalewski, is from Darker Objects by Christine E. Ray and Friends (Indie Blu(e) Publishing 2023).
Pins and Needles
thunder has been rumbling for the last few weeks
under my skin
hair standing up on the back of my neck
my arms
a storm has been brewing
I am edgy, uncomfortable
reality keeps twisting into a Dali landscape
I keep ending up in the Lost & Found bin
voiceless
disoriented
unable to account for all my minutes
all my hours
they say that our brains are remarkable at protecting us from
trauma
from what we are not ready to consciously face
my brain and I are having a difference of opinion on just how
ready
I am for sensoroma film clips to come bubbling up to my surface
right now
I remember…
keeps echoing in my head
I don’t know that
I really want to remember any
more than I already do
I hope to find humor yet about it happening
during the middle of an acupuncture treatment
apparently, reception is pretty good on the
Flashback Channel with needles penetrating my skin
maybe next time I’ll skip the silver foil blanket…
Christine E. Ray lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A former Managing Editor of Sudden Denouement Publications, she co-founded Indie Blu(e) Publishing with Kindra M. Austin in September 2018. Ray is author of Composition of a Woman and The Myths of Girlhood. Her writing has also been featured in As The World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad, SMITTEN This Is What Love Looks Like, We Will Not Be Silenced : The Lived Experience of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Told Powerfully Through Poetry, Prose, Essay, and Art, Anthology Volume I: Writings from the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective, Swear to Me (Nicholas Gagnier), and All the Lonely People (Nicholas Gagnier).
