I did not feel fear when <br />pain grabbed me by the chest <br />shook air out of my lungs, <br />triggered the sluice gates of my pores <br />releasing thick, cold sweat in waves <br />down my face and shoulders. <br />My stomach clenched, my bowels coiled uneasily <br />my mind’s eye opened, took a look <br />saw something wrong then suddenly <br />the brain that shaped my life <br />for more than nineteen thousand days, <br />bypassed all those parts of me that are polite, <br />don’t make a fuss, don’t bother anybody, <br />the parts that feel and think, <br />and went to work, flexing muscles, articulating joints, stretching and contracting tendons to pull my body to its feet, <br />setting a wavering course around the counter <br />across the room where lips and breath and tongue <br />built simple words, “don’t feel good” and pushed them out on to the air <br />for other ears to catch and process <br />then my body sat, my mind’s eye watched <br />as my brain directed all its parts, all my parts <br />in the eternal dance so seldom seen <br />that keeps the spark alive and I, <br />I felt no fear; I just sat and let my body breathe.<br /><br />Midnight Clarity<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/working-title-innards/
