Lost and Found Prompt
Image courtesy of MystiChakra
"Exorcising Keeps Us Regular
The speaker performs a daily, ritualized self-attack - a kind of controlled, almost ceremonial destruction of their own illusions - and in doing so restores their balance. Starts frantic and physical, ends calm and almost comic. What begins as rage/compulsion finishes as resigned tenderness. I especially like that the humour is compassionate when it could be cynical."
- lyw
Exorcising Keeps Us Regular
Each day
for about an hour
I lose my mind
and try to escape existence.
I abandon my center
charge towards the foundation
of my illusions
and begin pounding my skull against them.
Sometimes I’ll back up
to build extra momentum
a full head of steam
to fly full force
against weight bearing columns.
I am desperately searching
for give
for cracks
for some vulnerability
that will bring it all crashing down.
Near the end of this hour
I always find the weak point
always in the same place
where I knew it was
open and obvious
It is in fact
the central column of my existence
and it balances precariously
upon thousands of pieces of kindling
so that a mere push would accomplish
what all the past hour’s hard work couldn’t
Presented with this absurdity
I am driven sane again
and retreat back upstairs
to warm my hands
upon a cooling center
till tomorrow.