Overstimulation
by Laisha Cervantes
University of the Incarnate Word
Laisha Cervantes is a 3rd year student at the University of the Incarnate Word and is from Eagle Pass, TX. She is majoring in Psychology and is expected to graduate in the Spring of 2025.
The end is nigh. My salvation was behind motion detecting
sliding doors, souls traversing through without a care.
Knuckles turned white, losing reality’s grip on the red bar
of the shopping cart. My heart is an anvil dragging me
to the poorly polished floor, my mind begging for leverage.
Vision wants to focus but the beep, beep, beeping of
that damn pistol crunches numbers to a total.
Are you alright?
My throat clogs, yet it wants the stomach’s contents to burst.
Don’t look at me, I can’t stand your voice.
Why was I here in the first place, can someone answer me, please?
Your total is sixty-six with sixty-three.
The buzzing light overhead is taking over my mind,
a family of moths trapped inside, chasing the high
that promised them riches. The voices grow muffled,
I can’t hear my own breathing. My head grows heavy,
it must be tired of living. I wobbled on
my own life’s thread. A dangerous game of tightrope.
Is this what dying feels like? God, I
I do not want to die.
An angel holds me, caresses a pale sheet of cheek.
Death’s cold grip to a warm living touch.
I cling desperately to life, begging to live a while more.
She opens her mouth, a song erupting in my ears.
Let me be free of these chains.
“Call your dad. He can pick you up.”
