Katey Linskey
My Therapist Explains Disassociation
Living inside the sun, I open the closet when I mean to open the freezer.
I forget my place and the ice melts in the glass. Salt is already everywhere.
The bugs and I stop fighting. We buzz in a blue haze.
It’s too expensive to know where I stand. I make schedules for myself.
They trap me in shame. I rattle off my old theories to new faces.
Yes, neoliberalism is bad; I am 29 and everyone is getting married; I left global health
because of the saviorism; I worry I’m not all that different from those I hate; voting
is a farce but I do it anyways; I am unfamiliar to my family, no I don’t know why.
I have had this conversation 868 times. I will have it another 973 times if the cigarettes hold off.
Floating–I’m not sure I’ve ever had an original thought.
Aren’t we all regurgitating syllables for each novel audience?
The sun is too bright. My relationships aren't the same anymore.
I am harshest to those that remind me of myself.
My therapist asks, why did you decide to rent a room inside the sun? I’m not sure,
so I ask, do you know other people that live under the sun? What are they like? She says:
Dissociation is a response to that which a person finds intolerable.
I forget my place and the ice melts in the glass. Salt is already everywhere.
The bugs and I stop fighting. We buzz in a blue haze.
It’s too expensive to know where I stand. I make schedules for myself.
They trap me in shame. I rattle off my old theories to new faces.
Yes, neoliberalism is bad; I am 29 and everyone is getting married; I left global health
because of the saviorism; I worry I’m not all that different from those I hate; voting
is a farce but I do it anyways; I am unfamiliar to my family, no I don’t know why.
I have had this conversation 868 times. I will have it another 973 times if the cigarettes hold off.
Floating–I’m not sure I’ve ever had an original thought.
Aren’t we all regurgitating syllables for each novel audience?
The sun is too bright. My relationships aren't the same anymore.
I am harshest to those that remind me of myself.
My therapist asks, why did you decide to rent a room inside the sun? I’m not sure,
so I ask, do you know other people that live under the sun? What are they like? She says:
Dissociation is a response to that which a person finds intolerable.
Katey Linskey is a writer with poetry out and forthcoming in The West Review, Rise Up Review, Vagabond City Lit and elsewhere. She draws from her experiences growing up in Boston and later living in India and Guatemala. She spent six years working in public health which continues to inform her work as a writer.