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.