Tristesse, v 1.1

[RiverNotch]

Tristesse


The reaction is purely physiological
in nature. You may find yourself
tremble then go limp
warm and red: think
nothing of it if
you can think at all. Thinking
comes from experience -- eventually
you won't be able to help
but think -- which is why we advise
you try to think nothing
of it. Some people make
small talk marking
the weather or
the traffic. 
Some people smoke.

Stare at the ceiling perhaps, contemplate
its spareness, white
graded by shadow. Absorb the light
diffusing through the curtain. Your body
is the room, your heart the bed,
your eyes and skin the curtain and the window: is it not
a part of nature to spark, to sizzle,
to heat up red
then white, to discharge
particulate matter
when ignited?
Only when you switch
on a light, when you drag yourself from the sheets
and open the door to the hall, does it become
something else.

The reaction is purely physiological
in nature. You may find yourself
tremble then go limp
warm and red: think
nothing of it if
you can think at all. Thinking
comes from experience -- eventually
you won't be able to help
but think -- which is why we advise
you try to think nothing
of it. Some people make
small talk marking
the weather or
the traffic.
Some people smoke.

Stare at the ceiling perhaps, contemplate
its spareness, white
graded by shadow. Absorb the light
diffusing through the curtain. Your body
is the room, your heart the bed,
your eyes and skin the curtain and the window: is it not
a part of nature to spark, to sizzle,
to grow hot, to glow red
then white, to discharge
particulate matter
when ignited?
Only when you switch
on a light, when you drag yourself from the sheets
and open the door to the hall, does it become
something else.