SHINGLES
a mozzie firing range strawberry pips spokes in weals hot point sprocketed into cold shoulder foreign lesions running riot these hives are humming baby one flaming pain in the glands stiff jarlsberg what brand of rashness burn-out guilt fired this subcutaneous eruption i ask my doctor my doctor asks me what do you think it is could it be fleas i hope possibly or incipient encephalitis whole fiery firmaments flicker behind my eyes doctor my head’s swelling my neck’s red come now let’s not get political when the varicella-zoster virus rampages up your central nervous system and hits you in the cornea then we’ll start worrying strawberry daiquiri that’s the shot blood on the rocks a coolant kool aid watching for my scratch patch to crust over a child glimpses with disgust a spot of fascination above my gran’s vest white pimples limpid as pearls Michael Small
June, 1992
published Polestar, edition 10, June 2005