Phantasmagorical Reality Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Do you know the magnificence of overpowering
narcolepsy when you are asleep with your eyes
open, when sitting down means head lolling and
eyelids closing and the world turns into this deep
dark tunnel pulling you down, then by a stroke of

Luck you drink pure cold water and suddenly you
wake up and gladly pick up all overturned boxes,
mounds of books and papers overturned by your
jerky movements moments before, taking control
of life & feeling ready to climb back up to the sun

To find the friends you left behind are still there &
they are the sweet creatures you remember from
before the narcolepsy and alienation behind dark
glasses which clouded your perspective until you
found the magical cure in ice-cold water; if this is

Not your experience - you won't know the joy of
living a contrast between before and afterwards,
now I have woken up it feels as if I returned from
the dead - thank heaven that water revived me
before the feeling of sinking into the river Styx

With no ferryman around to take me over to the
other side, turned into phantasmagorical reality