Pressure-cookered 

crockpot-roiled      

Eardrum-searing cicada  

sizzles     Synapses  

fold, flare, fire and mis- 

fire sniper-tangled  

ricochets in concrete  

bunker     Zinging 

like a 4th of July  

Christmas Tree 

             caught  

deep in the badlands 

desperate to explain 

desert wiring 

summer firing      

Twinkling firmly  

in the headlights, stars 

and light-strings buzz 

shock waves disconnect 

fireworks and paradeless  

ribbon-cutting ceremonies  

sever circuitry     Slashed 

Globs puddle 

like ornaments  

off trunk – oblongata’s  

frazzled connector 

frantic to hurl  

themselves off  

Stemmed in, stuck 

to notions of re 

covery, re 

habilitation, re 

store, re 

turn, as if going back 

were possible 

as if remapped  

and rewired 

receding neurons  

weren’t replaced 

Something new