Thursday, February 14, 2013

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.

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