MICHAEL MCGRADY
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
Elusive thoughts, fragmented thoughts, shattered like so many fireflies flickering about an ebony night, propelled outward
By an explosive jolt from the wedge of melancholy
That is driven into my spongy brain
The percussion slams against the back of my eyes
And the lids flinch as the light of a single thought squeezes itself through a pinhole
Then runs in fear of being captured by the talons of depression
The round ball that is my eye, quivers in its socket
The white fades to a butterscotch hue
And like a grit of sand lost in the eye, scratching the surface…there is pain
A tear escapes and the fragments dart about
At rapid velocity and a swarm of shrapnel bands together
To form a diaphanous column…
It expands and contracts and the separate pieces coalesce and weld themselves together
To form again a single thought
And again
The wedge strikes with pitiless force
And the strident report suffuses the cavity that is my skull
The wedge drives deeper
Into the now, dry…hardened brain and the thought separates
Petrifies and remains suspended…arrested…still, leaving me
Thoughtless…
Elusive thoughts, fragmented thoughts…