Cataplexy
Ian Gibbins
A rare form of narcolepsy characterised by a sudden transition into a deep dream-sleep state with total loss of muscle tone. It is often induced by stress or high emotion.
or in the garden eyes your eyes buttons :
on the ground and my shirt sodden :
shrink-wrapped around my torso my waist hips :
and buttons undone missing on the ground :
or maybe frogs giant toads eels that slither :
entwine my ankles left leg right and :
arrive with skeins hanks our bowlines the restaurant :
with tagliatelle in ink indecisive then roulade then sabayon :
again with sangiovese sparkling the heat until you laughed :
you said your :
map in my pocket with copper coins a docket :
my hands too deep too far from polar co-ordinates :
a falling star but now only jelly-jam and cake :
birthday candles when my grandmother an owl :
under the eaves sings coos for the moon to wax and wane :
the television static the television the television :
at the gate two dollars or one hundred or never sufficient :
bricks falling a falling star dust matting our hair :
lightning between our watch dials so we run and run :
so flares sparkling between our radios our telephones :
disconnected the cavernous space of :
phosphogenic the haze any longer did you ?
look into the setting sun driving drive me home mistyped :
the cavernous emptiness of did you read the headlines did ?
knees elbows in alluvial mud clay buttons blue buttons my shirt :
did you look into the sun ?
passionfruit sabayon or not :
candles alight is the snow you promised ?
or not did you ?
frogs and eels beyond my grasp your touch entangle :
receding still sodden so :
buttons blue buttons white and my hands are empty :
skin bare against :
driving away :
when we kiss an owl a blackbird somewhere :
near the homeward road golden braids and knots I cannot :
he you sleepless untied or else tadpoles giant toads :
cramp in your calves or else :
falling as now and now now altogether soundless :
what happens when tongue-tied this shoulder :
pain in the small of my back did you see you ?
or yesterday thereabouts the watch face the dial at a glance :
mistaken absolutely nothing buttons your buttons :
your blue buttons and I ask about the sky and the rain :
and lightning sparkles time undetermined sodden falling :
and you laugh laughter in the garden entwined around me :
or not and all your friends are looking at :
A video-poem version of this work can be seen at:
https://vimeo.com/iangibbins/cataplexy
Ian Gibbins is online at IanGibbins.com.au and at vimeo.com/IanGibbins.
