Catatonia

When recovering from a trauma 
of unknown origin and indeterminate 

duration, the best you can do 
is reflect on where you were 

one year ago: this is when I awoke 
in the hospital, this is when 

I knew the seasons were changing, 
this is how the world raveled itself 

back into something resembling a shape 
outside the circumference of my head

Sometimes the thoughts are fastened down 
to the bed, catatonic and nowhere to go

Sometimes it seems the story keeps moving 
only this time you know it’s a fiction 

an unbearable episode made endurable 
only by reclaiming the pulse you were born with.