Six Explanations for Migraine

1 Demon

Flashing like lightning it is loosed

above and below. Weather, wind

enters through the eye, row

of trees along the road. Like one

sick of heart he staggers, like one

bereft of reason he is broken.

The dance stop-

gap, hypnotic. Slips in

past the interim, ducks

through a hole in the sight.

2 Hemicrania

If the affection be protracted, the patient

will die; if more light

and not deadly it becomes chronic, torpor

and weariness. Cold cloths,

supplications. Offerings

to the gods. Sharp and tormenting

Vapors. Pull the drapes, safe

from sight. Dim

the light, damp half

the mind, and wait.

3 Deity

The fiery life of divine essence

aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows:

I gleam in the waters and I burn

in the sun, moon, and stars.

The world hums

in outline, glow: what he’ll come

to call “the visuals”

radiating, eyebrow out.

From the very day of her birth, this woman

has lived as if caught in a net.

And I would call it down, pull out

my own shoddy wiring,

make trade of music

for this passed-on spell.

4 Psyche

Outlet for unacceptable impulses.

Harmful manifestations

of harmful processes.

Children don’t— The flip

of my grandmother’s skirt,

doctor’s door

slamming in her wake.

Children don’t: She was right,

knew the tripwire

from the cause. Still

here is a box,

a nest of wires.

Gloves, clippers. I strip

the sheath. White matter,

shutter. Know more, but still

they twist, they ghost.

Gift him the case

along with the tools.

5 Chemistry

Ibuprofen, caffeine.

Ergotamine tartrate.

Propoxyphene. Dextro-

propoxyphene. Propranolol,

butalbital. Sumatriptan

succinate, first shot

of what works, rush

of heat through a vein:

surface or depth,

I don’t care. Every finger

tingles, bruise blooms

on my thigh. Buys me

days and days. Calculate,

dizzy on the hall floor: more.

6 Galaxies

Grain the trigger, the gut

the gun. Feeding the baby

such a rattletrap trap:

strict dominion

of obscure turns, genes,

lines. Pull the thread

and a stitch

elsewhere twitches, eye

and an eye closing

behind it. Cat’s cradle

more skyfield

than map.

We tack spark to spark.

Stars thrum

in the boy’s eye. I turn

the cloth again. We wait.