syncope

a rush of blood
from the head
faint-hearted, limp-limbed
more like dead

as if

time-signatures beneath the bone
threw breath and blood
into pools and eddies in the chest
left the brain out of it more or less

and

falling prey to gravity
irregular echoes in the ears
like a beating pulse
or a tunnel made of years

for

far too long semi-conscious strife
held off the pains and trials of life
time to rest let it slip away
time to cut the crap

with syncope

© BH, 2019

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I think I saw the word somewhere and perhaps thought that syncope was some figure of speech I should know about.

But, no, it’s dizzy spells. I’ve known or remembered people who would fade out publicly. Maybe get revived or whisked off to A&E. Low blood pressure, they said.

And I found that ’syncope’ is the word for it. It made me think, is this yet another way of your body telling you to slow down. Just a thought…

The illustration is, of course, my self-portrait superimposed on a detail of an image by street artist SWOON - here, on Pinterest.