Jamming the Zone

Put it all back in your head,
he said
that night
when the world became
the thing in the film in the book in the song in my brain.
Roll it all up in a ball
and put it all
back in your head.

Forget that the ripple effect
of the butterfly's wings when you shout or you sing
or you think of a word that means several things
can kill millions or one
or has killed you already and you're living in shadows
making your way
back to the plane
that you came from, but everyone's changing the rules:

forget what they told you at school
when the bites and the bruises and suffering losers
and beggars and choosers came close to exploding
your flesh and your matter, still
intact in spirit, but spiritually shattered
no matter, no matter, no matter

Put it all back in your head
he said
that night
when the world became
the exodus, zion, the beast and the babylon,
dread and creation,
the train in the station that's taken
the chosen, but where? To the chambers
of heaven or horror,
the caverns of pleasure,
the summits of pain?

Roll it all up in a ball,
roll it all up in a glowing blue ball
and put it all
back in your head.

Esther E Wheatley