Six Pills Plus One: 1. Fish Oil

Once removed from birthplace (birth nation),
my siblings save me on a cross-country trek
out to land o lakes in our sickly green station
wagon, mile markers in the dark to connect
where we’ve been to where we are going.

Storm falls and my eyes roll back
flicker, rain on windshield, without anyone knowing.
My brother sees foaming, bubbling white on sickly black
screams and cries, frenzied desperate.

Convulsive spasms ensue. I match
green of vinyl interior, the same but separate—
one artificial, one becoming more so.  The catch
is that it’s taken thirty-six years to return

to Minnesota. Side effects make my heart burn.

1/10/11