Psychotic Reaction

by Thomas Piekarski

Image credit: WrongTogon Unsplash

If in the course of human interaction

a man incurs a psychic overreaction

his nerves get frazzled, senses dazed

by what speed with to his surprise

fright surges up and down the spine.

When a nurse walks out on the job

due to incompetence of the doctors

who are putting many lives at risk

it’s fitting she stand up, speak out,

and fight if only for once in her life.

Having surveyed a magic landscape

riding on the bump of a camel over

a frozen arctic and monstrous desert

with wind-blizzards, the clergyman

finds his God lying dead in a ditch.

In order to make any progress on his

private crusade to become extricated

from madness of the electronic age

a warrior would need to first consult

the reflection of his polished shield.

The stress endured when pressured

to meet a sudden, dreaded deadline

gets one’s mind out of sync with

optics processed and spilt as words,

which makes the situation worse.

Trapped in a big bubble of sullenness,

time disguised as some angry demon

is reason enough for the sorry quitter

to resort to watching television shows

that will only further rob him of sanity.

The moral is told on an ancient scroll

never to be found, written by a mystic

who never dreamed of a computer, jets,

nuclear bombs, abortion, nor psychosis

brought on by belief in invalid theories.

***

Thomas Piekarski

Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His poetry has appeared in such publications as The Journal, Poetry Salzburg, Modern Literature, The Museum of Americana, South African Literary Journal, and Home Planet News. His books of poetry are Ballad of Billy the Kid, Monterey Bay Adventures, Mercurial World, Aurora California, and Opus Borealis.