What those are

These are them.

A bowl of white, faintly luminescent,

bite-sized lozenges, anonymously

planted in the communal kitchen, sat.

They resembled some kind of hard candy,

rough-edged and smelling faintly of spearmint…

The species toxoplasma gondii—

one parasite that alters behavior—

gives Infected rats the audacity

to approach felines, which are the preferred

mating grounds for the gifted parasite.

Cats eat the emboldened carrier rats

piloted into their paths by the worm.

What made me gobble one of those bizarre

white things? It tasted like a freezer burned

moth ball rolled in crystalline NutraSweet.

Somehow my body suppressed the dire urge

to spit in the sink. No, I swallowed and

quickly filled and drained a glass of water.

The next morning in the kitchen, my hand

reached for the bowl again. I scooped up four

of the casings. Repulsed at the notion

of eating them, I slipped them into my

pocket. Later, at home, in the garden,

I felt them there. I’m sure there’s reason why

I buried them in the earth and then turned

my attention away…

What’s caught my eye

now is that alien object growing

by the fichus—that whitish, three-inch high

spiraling spire like no earthly living

thing I’ve ever seen—and I understand!

My will is bent to a greater knowing,

and the transmitter is humming, glowing.