Can You Describe It?
Season 1.12: Experiencing a migraine.
The fizz on your face as it stretches from the cheeks into the obscure, floating foreground; bathed in a fill of the mind’s translucent mess and pushed out by a pressure within, deep and foreign. An insurrection from the very core.
The parts in which you once trusted now shiver in disarray as they heave against your skin and chest. Not out of revolt but confusion - an imbalanced curdling pot of malaise.
A sudden collapse of function - a loss of form - an anxious anomaly demanding distance be made between this and everything else, just to be distant. Just to be alone.
And the body wobbles when engaged, the shins, the biceps and every sense snaps on the nerves like a snare. And you wish to be further from the source - outside of yourself until born again with a dip of a toe or an elbow - off the boil.
Irritation pursues every interaction with the world. Potent anxiety; an attachment to the communications, the looks, the actions, the very presence of every single other thing.
And the cold rises just above the epidermis, shaving strips along the torso as the mind is corrupted in a deep stab.
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Thank you so much for reading my work. It means a huge amount to me to have even 1 minute of your time, let alone the attention needed to read and understand these words. If you like what you see tell other people about it - it is the absolute best way to support me and my work and I would appreciate it hugely.
Read more from Season 1…
This is the first season of Notes and Noises. If you liked this (or didn’t) why not take a quick look at some of the other posts in the series:
It's so interesting hearing other migraine experiences described. Migraines are isolating, and specific to the body, yet there's commonality, too. "The fizz on your face..." I totally get this, almost an effervescence under the skin.
Thanks for sharing, David. :)
As a fellow migraine sufferer I can relate. I love how this piece focuses on the whole body, the outer body, I don't think people see past the "headache." I do believe there is some link between physical pain and the creative pathway, inspiration for a lot of my poems come the day after onset.