Cranial Landscape Danger Zone

Linda Hutsell-Manning

Perhaps what you see
is synapse turbulence
thin drifting lines like
spider webs or possibly
barbed wire something to
protect or even dissect
dementia’s softened chaos

all waves all lines some
surging toward unseen
internal points some
rolling into snail holds
small fists protecting
an off centre vortex
threatening your extinction

as if at any moment
you could disappear
stabbed by one black
inward thrust  one last
attempt to swallow all
and yet you stay suspended
Sturm und Drang on hold

eyes and faces lurk here 
even two resting birds
sentries caught between
some random thoughts
adrift in stillness each
one’s somber eye
a lookout from your soul

The Science

“With Alzheimer’s disease [and dementia], ageing is under a consistent pressure of increasing brain entropy due to progressive brain deteriorations.” (Ze Wang, Front Aging Neurosci, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, 2020). This poem investigates the brain's seeming lack of order or predictability and its potential toward a slow decline into disorder.

The Poet

Linda Hutsell-Manning’s poetry has been published in Canadian Literary magazines: Grain, Quarry, lichen, Prairie Journal, Fish Quill Anthology, Nuwork Magazine, Balm and more. Other publications: That Summer in Franklin, Second Story Press, A Certain Singing Teacher, Playwrights Canada Press, Fearless and Determined: Two Years Teaching in a One-Room School, Blue Denim Press, and short fiction in literary magazines. More details here: www.lindahutsellmanning.ca

Next poem: Darkness by S. T. Brant