(from caring for people with gunshot wounds and spinal injuries)

Unraveling dreadful dreams
like knots of warped
riveted ribbons.
Twisted turning in the night.
Wound up,
tightly triggered.
Soldered parts melt
like wax.
The smell of suffering recalls.
Alcohol, iron and gun steal.
Drilled deep into memory.
Before my prime another time.
Mastering the heat
from the kick
of bullet fire.
Mind burns from
flashes of pierced flesh,
torn apart.
Disappearing
out backdoors,
backyards into
severed spines,
into dreams.
To walk
To run
To forget
To remember.