I was recently on a plane heading to San Francisco to attend a business event. On the flight I was just uncomfortable. I felt physically exhausted, anxious, and a bit squished into my seat. My legs were jittery and nervous and I needed to move, so after the plane gets up in the air, I took a brief walk up to the restroom. Settling back into my seat, I decide to turn on some music to take my mind off my jitters. “Maybe I could write”, I thought, I felt the muse pushing me (which is not uncommon when I fly). I could hear my blood running through my veins and the heaviness of tangly nerves laying on top of my muscles, squeezing, moving, and tingling without a thought. “Ok, I will write about that, about how my legs were feeling, and the rest of my body, I’ll direct some energy there instead.” I clicked the little white button on my ear buds and the muse brought me the rhythmic and entrancing music of Anoushka Shankar’s “Buleria con Ricardo” and here’s what happened:
That Tingle – There it is Again
tap tap fingers snap
tingle wiggle
CLAP
my blood flows thick
through my legs like mercury running
slow
fast
slow
like the maestro’s
hands on the keys running through time
running through me
through scales
through my brain
FLIP
switch clap tingle wiggle snap
steady
now is the background beat
that fills the space between my brain
THAT
heart mind spirit-breath
snap tickle-touch
stirring round round
flowing down down
the spine into my feet
like clay they stand
HARD
hardened
harpooned by their spears
of doubt
self dosed drug-induced
wriggle wrinkle warp
LOST
from self
disdain demon-dust
ahhhhhhh
and there it is again
that tingle
not of nerves
NO
nor wretched pain
but now it’s pounding
slapping
belly laughing
bending twisting turning
inside out
tap tap
TAP
lifting
lighting