Epilepsy
At dinner with people he happened
To meet earlier at the protest
Their signs leaning along the wall
The lights flicker like someone
Is walking around upstairs
And he starts to smell that odor
That precedes his seizures
Strong sun on dry rock
And pinion pines
When was it
Hiking with his father
Above the Kern River
The first time it happened
Or is it years later
At the draft office where
They flicked a flashlight in his face
To give him one
A seizure
That is
To make sure
He wasn’t lying
Before giving him a 4F
It’s going to happen
Any instant now
Like a sneeze in a quiet theater
He can’t hold it any longer
The odor is growing stronger
But then
The generator kicks in
The lights stop flickering
Whoever was walking around
Upstairs has stopped
And he’s back at the table amongst people
He hardly knows but
Who would have held his head