Brain-Sturm

Verdant woods, yellow dirt road, setting sun.
Fading colors in a day almost done.

Ah, what a still life well composed.
If only I could relish such repose.

Motions and emotions now swirl in the dusk.
But they’re nothing I can see, nothing I can trust.

Acute sensations of smell and sound
crescendo in my head unbound.

I had thought all this a nature trick
fear of the forest or a little bit sick.

What started as a wormhole in the mind
has left my real self far behind.

What is real now I’m not so sure.
Only this brain-sturm I must endure.

All thoughts are deeply visceral,
a blur between mental and physical.

The cerebral surge flows down the torso,
sprouting muscle gnarls I don’t want to know.

Coarse matted hair all over is exuding,
bony shoulders and a heavy snout protruding.

The woods are bathed in crepuscular light,
as the full lunar orb gains in height.

My humble hominid self is now re-centered.
Power suppresses fear, hunger severs honor.

Oh Super-Moon, I can feel you abreast,
as did the ancient masters of the forest!

Previously published in Bloodbond May 2015

Gary Davis likes all things classic horror. He has published Halloween short stories in Aphelion (October 2019) and in Frostfire Worlds (2016-2019). He has published poetry in Aphelion, The Vampire’s Crypt, Bloodbond, Illumen, Scifaikuest, Star*Line, Tales from the Moonlit Path, two Lester Smith Halloween anthologies and in a sci-fi anthology, Kepler’s Cowboys (2000-2020).

Find more by Gary W. Davis in the Author Index.

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