How You Will Know
It all begins invisibly, when
you least expect--
long after the tears in your eyes
have congealed from staring
at the antiseptic white between the words,
long after your fingers tire of writing
the same first line,
the same first line,
long after your pen has chiseled its way for hours,
days, weeks, months
through the cold black cave of text,
scrambling, fumbling, waiting in the dark
for that one
elusive moment.
You feel a wave--
a subtle energy, a charged
radiating heat, formless, already too much
to be contained. The juice makes
exhausted fingers start to twitch,
makes them vital, nimble, and spry.
A distant neuron rattles,
rocks, shocks itself awake,
sparking timidly before
setting all its neighbors ablaze.
Your hand is the lightning rod.
The electricity is coming:
far too much and
far too fast.
It’s time to conduct.
you least expect--
long after the tears in your eyes
have congealed from staring
at the antiseptic white between the words,
long after your fingers tire of writing
the same first line,
the same first line,
long after your pen has chiseled its way for hours,
days, weeks, months
through the cold black cave of text,
scrambling, fumbling, waiting in the dark
for that one
elusive moment.
You feel a wave--
a subtle energy, a charged
radiating heat, formless, already too much
to be contained. The juice makes
exhausted fingers start to twitch,
makes them vital, nimble, and spry.
A distant neuron rattles,
rocks, shocks itself awake,
sparking timidly before
setting all its neighbors ablaze.
Your hand is the lightning rod.
The electricity is coming:
far too much and
far too fast.
It’s time to conduct.