Migraine-Brain
By Ben Blyth
poetry

Today she is screaming
from the socket behind my left eye
we can’t have this
—I tell her—
there is too much to do
we have people to visit
we have library cards to renew
it has been almost a week
of her latest tantrum somewhere
in the mulch
between eyes and brain
last night she called at 3am
at the threshold of my sleep-sight
in a dream that is the mirror
of the waking-room
from the hollow-door
she launches at me
with a shriek-song and a banshee-smile
flesh falling from her frozen lips
as she dead-hand clasps
the back my neck.
Pinned. Petrified. Paralyzed.
she tears green-fibres with hollowed-teeth
an Ireland rugby jersey I lost
somewhere in 1999.
It was my favourite.
I jolt awake with an apnea death-rattle and feel
the bed wet between my legs
but can’t tell if its urine or cum.
37-years old. 220 lbs.
Fumbling for the night-light.
In a damp bed
With a violent ghost in the laundry.
White light. White light. Wight lite. Wight-like.
She can’t recover lost treasures.
Or un-make your laundry.
Or un-rot your food.
Or un-bury your dead.
She can’t leave your head.
in the end it is neither
the water or seed
the heating has kicked-off and
ice-breath curls about the empty room as
the sheets lime with frost about my feet.
It was a night light this almost one year ago
that the pipes burst.
***
Ben Blyth is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English working in Treaty 7 Territory. He was awarded a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Calgary in January 2024, and holds MA’s from RADA and Christ’s College, Cambridge. He has poetry published in Yolk; The Dawntreader; Madrigal; Amethyst Review; and Pinhole Poetry. Ben lives between Orkney, Scotland and Calgary, Alberta.