William Fargason
Ode To Klonopin
O first responder O pinprick
of smoke weld my synapses
like two sponges becoming one
every shadow filling with light
O blanket of reality I enter a field
where you are gatekeeper a field
it seems everyone else walks through
daily O patched hole in my tire
O little chemical pearl O break in case
of emergency O bowling bumpers
I come to you needing only you
I trace my wrists my neck my pulse
unfindable O warmth of my mother
O June sometimes I split you
on the scored line take half
I know I will be back for more
the anxiety always electricity
a thunder in my body O surge
protector keep me safe for the night
for four to six hours let me sleep
without waking mid-attack again
keep me until I can’t keep you anymore
William Fargason reads “Ode To Klonopin”
William Fargason is the author of Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara (University of Iowa Press, 2020), and the winner of the 2019 Iowa Poetry Prize. His poetry has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Barrow Street, Narrative, and elsewhere. His nonfiction has appeared in Brevity and The Offing. He earned a BA in English from Auburn University, an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland, and a PhD in poetry from Florida State University. He is the poetry editor of Split Lip Magazine. He lives with himself in Tallahassee, Florida.