From here I watch a caravan of clouds pass by
Here in my familiar bed of dreams,
Fever spent, bereft,
Tucked inside fate’s ambivalent grasp.
I am quarantined,
Trapped within a version of me.
Within this burning version,
I am euphoric.
I divine the wisdom of the ages,
Trace a path across shifting pillowed gray skies.
And deep within, a glowing heat rises,
Expands inside my head, electric.
Thoughts ablaze. Senses scorching.
All the while this dusty world buzzes and spins
Leaving me breathless, and oh so empty.
And it is here that I realize that
Everything exists inside my head
From the rising clouds
To the wisdom of ages
To fevered epiphanies
To the great Empty.
And so I fall silent at the mercy of it all
Lost in an illness that elevates me
Beyond the lines of time and space
And leaves me vacant
As a cloud floating through
The boundless space
Of an entire universe.
Christen Lee is a certified family nurse practitioner in the Northeast Ohio, Cleveland area. Outside of health care, Christen enjoys immersing herself in words.