Epilepsy Diagnosis

after, and closing with phrases from, Dave Bonta’s “Prayer”
and Luisa A. Igloria’s “Border Studies: 18“

A cameo lodged within the soft stuff
of the mind, Ben Franklin silhouette,
hair trapped with a ribbon. Innocuous,
until we are not watching; he begins
experiments, sends up kite and key,
he’s all about the flow of electricity,
he’s well grounded to the brain-stem.
I am made absent, undergo indelicate
adjustments of position, he turns my
ear to the shimmering world, floods
my eyes with a light rare as gin, my
head full of if.