Web Of Illegal Bewitchment

*

*

I thought I could escape the bane
of getting caught up again by reading
slowly when beginning Terry Pratchett’s
Unseen Academicals

I thought watching the No1 Ladies Detective
Agency would calm my mind down – I was wrong
I haven’t been able to gather the scattered rays of
my attention, my mind is gone

Somehow Pratchett’s web of illegal bewitchment
woven with good cheer and charm and adorable
similes, has augmented the desolation in my head
I cannot function at all because

Time has come to a standstill, there is only this book
of magic, total confusion and the shrilling in my ears
nothing in between, I can’t do anything, the nervous
tension stretching to breaking point

Desperately I sit at my desk, staring at my document,
every word I type seems to take a hundred years
because the flow of time has stopped, nothing will
make it start up again – the pain in my head

Is increasing, if only I could cry in a desperate attempt
to jump-start my frozen brain…

*

[I started reading Unseen Academicals
and what little sense I had, I lost completely.
I can’t move forwards or backwards or sideways –
the book is alive like a burning charm in my head
and I am burning up – excited and full of dread.]