Capturing Campus: Nosebleed

Content warning: mentions of blood, profanity

Nosebleed

I see red

smell pennies

am I bleeding out 

my nose

or just my eyes 

adjustments are needed

contact lenses or otherwise

I’m woozy

walking somewhere

my legs will carry me there

there is where i will go

I don’t know where  

the world’s blurry

behind fluid-tinted glasses

how funny it is 

that my body can’t contain itself

in lungs or lifeblood

the capacity to

spill over the side

and to want to

pluck reds from strawberry bushes

bell peppers come from bushes too

but you don’t see people picking them

because who’d eat a bell pepper

when life’s dripping

and you’re bleeding all over the fucking carpet

Capturing Campus: Recipe from Hell

Recipe from Hell

INGREDIENTS

1 garlic clove

5 sesame seeds

4 snake eggs

2 tbsp sage

1 fingerbone

DIRECTIONS

Mash the clove 

Grind the sesame seeds

Crack the snake eggs

Whisk until incorporated

Crush the fingerbone finely

Sprinkle bone dust and sage into the mixture

Whisk vigorously until the souls of your enemies cry out

(from beneath the floorboards)

Bake until golden brown, or until the angels weep at your feet

Leave to cool in the center of your pentagram

Allow the hellfire erupting from the ground to crisp the edges

Dig in!

From nothing

Joy is, in itself, a worthy cause

But even it needs to be created

We are told that our feelings are somehow superfluous

Not real

Yet they can be altered

Changed

By outside forces

You tell me that this strange spirit on the stage isn’t real

Yet I see

The body move, gesture

Breathe

And is something in me not changed in seeing it?

Bodies moving

With each other, and not

Gesture

Breath

Voice

Move into the light

And that’s already a change.

Move downstage

Change

Ensemble in formation

Grasp onto another

Change

Lament

The gaze moves

Change

Meet an audience member’s eyes

And they are changed

A tear

Change

A laugh

A moment to the next

Draw breath

Maybe the soul on the page has never lived

Or maybe they’ve lived and then moved on

But now they breathe again

Exhale

Once I was you

Someday you will be me.

Are you angry yet?

Sad?

Joyful?

Relieved?

Have you yet been changed?

You will be.

Step into the light

Draw breath

Fill the body

Wake up the spirits

Don’t tell me magick isn’t real

This space is charged with light

Buzzing

Every body overfilled with life

And you are a story made flesh

Move, speak your spells right now

There are even witnesses

Invite them in

Mistakes are easily forgiven

Only one thing really matters:

Conjure.

Capturing Campus: Sleep Paralysis

Sleep Paralysis

Waking became worse than dreaming

of guilt and endless rooms

familiar and upside down

bottomless pits on the ceiling

falling upwards 

to breathe but not move

words like mercury in the throat

dispel panic through fluttering eyelids

know there is no sense in fighting

a prison of the mind

as limbs stiffen hard

at the sight

perched on the bed

with angel wings

borne of kerosene 

headlights for teeth

gnashing at the stillness

beneath tight sheets

A cherry pit soul

screams freedom

Capturing Campus: Reclamation

TW: Gore, canibalistic imagery, mentions of violence

Reclamation 

a crack of the skull to let the demons out

sharp daggers to the chest

pouring love; painting a sygil 

violence on grass blades and mushroom tops

too dizzy to lift a hand

skin marred and beautiful, bloody even

nibbled by canines and premonition

bit down on finger bones

gritty and callous resistance 

chewed the marrow like tobacco

spit it out, too

onto cold ground; it ferments

like fallen leaves atop moss

the flies buzz hymnals

and maggots squeal 

gleeful, they’ll burrow holes 

a porous sponge 

for mud and dust and rainwater

raw and plain

sinking into the earth

your final resting place

Capturing Campus: Panic

TW: Mild gore

Panic

It starts with a s u r g e

not like a seizure’s electrical storm

but a thickening of your skull

soupy membranes turned slick and wiry 

veins puffed up and tangled

Entrapped in your mind

the heat pounds heavy and gross

filling your ears with thoughts

taking no form, no substance

unintelligible thoughts of the present and future

And exposure 

a naked vulnerability as eyes find you

where all senses and sense of peace have eroded

and you question whether peace ever was

or was it always anticipation?

of a quiet that won’t last

But you beg for one that lasts

you stupidly, ridiculously beg for one that lasts

for a tranquil touch you swore you used to know

Was it seconds ago or longer

so familiar and so far

with tainted bones 

a brain stained and comprehending

that a dull poison 

will still kill you