I wrote this psychedelic poem two years ago and just rediscovered it while poking around in my hard drive. I really do love it. Let me know what you think!
The Psychonaut's Guide to At-Home Spaceflight
by Starr O'Hara
Chocolate doesn't mask
the earthy-bitter-wet-dog flavor of
psychedelic spaceflight,
but the aftertaste wanes
as the giggling waxes,
as the cramping subsides,
as you emerge from your chrysalis of blankets,
cheeks wet with mycophilic tears,
and metamorphose.
You are now a neuro-rocketship.
Soaring,
flaring,
light-yearing through the living room.
You discover new
nebulae in wood grain,
planets in upholstery,
black holes in LCD screens.
And isn't everything beautiful?
And aren't your fellow travelers
all so fascinating? And don't you
understand now
how perfectly it all fits together,
bent and coiled, latticed and twisted
just so?
Every speck of cosmic dust
sparking and
each unlikely node of life
thrumming and
infinite threads of consciousness
twining and
wouldn't a shower feel nice?
Allow the bathroom to capture you
in its orbit, but don't
examine too closely
the grout between the tiles,
where galactic squalid darkness
cultivates fungal forces of
another kind.
And next time, traveler,
clean the shower before lift-off.
Thank you for reading!
Hi. I'm Starr O'Hara. In addition to occasional dabblings in poetry, I also write fiction. Science fiction to be precise. My current literary focus is dystopia. Check out Chapter One of my novel, Technate 2051 here on Hive.
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*Image sourced from Pixabay