DEAR LUCIDITY

The evening begins with laughter.
Cheerful voices swirl around me
oxygenating my blood,
as I float from one required task to the next,
elevated by the sensation.

Then it happens.

A trigger clicks within my chest.

Elation takes a hairpin turn
into panic.

Descending into
dizzy desperation
I fall backwards into
the quarries of my mind,
into the mines of my qualms.

My breath is agitated
my vision spirals into
impetuous distress,
paralyzed in a cylinder
of my own dread.

In obscurity I grope
for my bearings
frantically searching
for a way back
into my being.

Then subtly,

almost imperceptibly,

my prison walls begin to thaw,
tiny trickles slither silently
away
until tension
lifts
like an early morning
ocean fog.

Lucidity returns,
a cherished friend
soothing my tattered spirit,
offering me a steaming cup of tea
on a brittle winter day.

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