Time-Shifts Are Dangerous Ii Poem by Margaret Alice

Time-Shifts Are Dangerous Ii

Rating: 5.0


8 February - Saga of Today -

I’m tired today, after a week of battling
with fatigue I still haven’t found my feet,
some kind of intolerance causes energy
to leak from my supersensitive system

I lay in front of the TV to get some sleep,
then got up but still can’t keep my eyes
open, my head’s too heavy for my body,
my thoughts empty, I feel depleted

Nothing stirs my feelings, all I can think is
I need more sleep, looking at newspaper
pictures and wishing for some energy, I
hate this lethargy, overwhelming fatigue –

My beloved is angry, the decoder is demon-
possessed, refuses to acknowledge the
card’s presence, no communication between
these pieces of modern technology means

No image on TV; I sit in the kitchen, enjoying the
cold air-con stream, while my beloved jumps up-
and-down and screams curses of all kinds at the
gadgets and pieces of equipment that refuse

To work, he’s working with the pressure-cooker,
his blood pressure rising ever higher, while I
hang my head; I’ve found several magic things
at the home industry, feeling too tired to indulge

My taste for enchanted objects, my system has
shut down – time shifts tapped what little energy
I had for today…

Time Shifts Are Dangerous I

Collected Tiaan from school, driving in a pool of
brightest sunshine, the world sparkling like a jewel,
emerald trees in shimmers of gold, a sapphire sky,
delighted to drive on such a beautiful day

Driving, driving along, suddenly time shifted, I don’t
know where I am, can’t recognize the steep incline
of the street, don’t know the houses around, Tiaan
busy with MXit, I’m alone in my confusion

Where am I and why am I suffocating inside my head,
my ears ringing, muscles of steel imploding my body,
I turn around and drive back the way I came, must have
taken a wrong turn somewhere

I recognize something, what I cannot tell, it is familiar,
turn left and the world comes into perspective, I know
where I am, keep straight to go home, pass the new
route that threatens confusion again

Time shifts are dangerous, where did I go, was my brain
short-circuiting, did I fall into a minute Black Hole, what-
ever happened, it is scary, ate sugar at home to put an
end to the chain reaction in my head….

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Patti Masterman 07 February 2009

Wow, when I am under too much pressure sometimes, it manifests as a total loss of local awareness of where I am in space. Everything looks just the same, as I sit, traffic backing up behind me, and I can think only: 'Those trees used to mean something to me; are supposed to be telling me where to go...' it is very unsettling and you can only understand the terror if it has happened to you. Alas, it happens on a part of the same journey I have taken 800 times!

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Margaret Alice

Margaret Alice

Pretoria - South Africa
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