High
An arctic tern will fly 10,000 miles
to flourish in two summers worth of light;
so I was high after he died, chasing
sun on the wing, though directionless.
I swallowed three green capsules every night,
peristalsis pulsing them
through my scorched oesophagus.
I took what I could get
to alter my consciousness,
testing my fragmented sense of time
against the wall clock’s competence
till dawn was salmon red
& gutted on the banks of the horizon.
I was not or even near myself.
Kitty Donnelly‘s first collection, The Impact of Limited Time, was published in 2020 by Indigo Dreams. She has just completed an MA at Manchester Writing School. She also has a degrees in English, Mental Health Nursing and works as a Specialist Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She lives in West Yorkshire and has poems forthcoming in The Rialto, Acumen, Dreich and Mslexia.