CW: depression treatment, electroconvulsive therapy

Tongue-gifted and tongue-cursed I bloom only 

on these plangent nights like Cereus opens 

blowing darkness from its opalescence 

becoming its opposite to revive

the mythweaver’s and the paingiver’s spell

I am not boundless I came to confess

the electricity’s jolts shocked me into

a different being as if I conducted

impedance and capacitance the bolts

urging me to reconsider my stance

the words I scrambled for were not the words

colliding on my trembling peccant lips

I quivered like an unknowing canine

what body was I inhabiting what 

were the rules of this limited life?

Dylan Willoughby is a permanently disabled LGBTQIA+ poet, composer, music producer, music video producer, and photographer, born in London, England, raised in England, Wales, Chile, Canada, and the US, and currently living in Los Angeles, CA. Chester Creek Press has published 3 limited-edition letterpress poetry chapbooks, with illustrations by the hyper-realist painter Anthony Mastromatteo.