Fever

The ache and the cold and the heat come on together. There is no cold, just less heat. There is no dark, just less light. The fever rises and falls in me like a wave. My body keeps over­shoot­ing and under­shoot­ing its set points and I am left in sweats or shiv­er­ing. I sleep as the pen­du­lum passes through its nadir, briefly.

My imag­i­na­tion takes off as soon as I finally sleep, the flut­ter­ing of its ris­ing wings…a lit­tle bas­ket hold­ing my ill­ness, float­ing like Moses in the bull rushes.