Sensory Overload Anita Liu

SENSORY OVERLOAD SENSORY OVERLOAD

By Anita Liu

It started when the grass began to breathe under me. It came to life, growing towards the sunlight. The clouds crawled across the sky, a lion turtle with the world on its back. It feels like I’m in a video game— I look at my friend, the colors appear so dull, pale, gray, then they become saturated with the essence of life. He has rainbow edges leaking out of his left side visceral color, imaginary lover. Three layers of rotating patterns in the sky an airplane disturbs the peace, nobody else notices, it’s my secret. We go inside watching the trees whisper to each other through my window. The pale blue tiles in the bathroom move like ocean waves I see myself in the mirror, magenta cascades down from the left side of my head, coloring in my skin. Fragments of the universe under the same sky a dimension exists above our heads, when you blink you see the crosshatched edges fade in and out layers of patterns rotating in the sky. Lay on the floor see the stars sparkling on the ceiling. They dance together and invite me to dance with them. I am surrounded by twinkling stars that extend past my peripheral view horizon to horizon under a veil of stars that sparkle for my eyes only they dance in rotating geometric patterns see the asymmetry tango with symmetry I welcome the fear so i can see the beauty I feel connected to everything I finally allow myself to feel raw emotion unadulterated intimacy. I have never lived until now. I feel the fear the anxiety the bravery the love in the end I was always there for myself I was always the one that had to reassure myself that was my job alone to live my life for me. I have never truly lived until now colors so vibrant, vivid, and alive— the world is speaking to me passionate expression and unapologetic joy the world we live in is whimsical if you blink you’ll miss it. Sensory overload.

Vol. Xl, Issue I 21 https://unsplash.com/photos/iKEZNiIHsbs