Take 1 Tablet(s) Daily

Twenty mils paroxetine HCl. Two weeks in mania;
this is the free ride, bad case
of the giggles on doctors’ samples, kite-high.

When you settle in, there’s a calm, there’s
an “ahh” that skims over
the silver ocean in a hoverchair, breezy and noiseless,

but then you notice: legs are electric, techno-realism
in dream vision, alien feelings
that come in peace, bug-eyed, and strange things below.

Not sure when the lethargy thickens, but it’s ingrown
like a second skeleton,
without joints. Contentment becomes apathy, marble,

even Christ can’t feel the nails when he’s carved of stone.

—PAUL VEERMEERSCH

(Originally published on-line, October 16, 2003.)

The famous Taddle Creek end note

Author Bio

Paul Vermeersch lives in Parkdale. He is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently The Reinvention of the Human Hand (M. & S., 2010). He teaches at Sheridan College and is the poetry editor for Insomniac. He appeared on the first Taddle Creek Disc of Laser-light Reflected Sound, and has contributed to the magazine since 1999. (Last updated Christmas, 2010.)