somatic_poltergeists ovenbird I’m quite sure that my body is haunted by a malevolent force that knocks on the walls and violently rearranges the furniture. Here is a record of various unexplained phenomena. ..... Yesterday at breakfast I was sipping raw cacao laced with chai spices from a matcha bowl when I felt a spacy pressure building in my head, as if a heavy fog had rolled in. I paused to investigate this unusual feeling just as something rushed through my body, something physical, something ALIVE. It began at my feet and swept up to the crown of my head. It’s what I imagine an adrenaline rush would feel like if adrenaline was actually a stampede of angry kittens. My heart started pounding, my hands got shaky, I started sweating. I said, “what the hell is going on?” out loud and then wondered if this was a hot flash? Is that a thing I’m experiencing now? How will I know when I have one? I felt distinctly off for about three hours afterwards, like something had taken up residence in my body and I was not alone in there. I do not recommend this experience. 251108 ... ovenbird An itch begins at the top of my scalp but nothing will relieve it. Not pressure, not scratching, not pulling my own hair as hard as I can without ripping it out. It’s like the itch is below the bone, deep in the folds of my brain. It’s an itch that is a thought rather than a sensation. It exists only in theory and so there is nothing I can do to alleviate my own distress. I go to sleep, sure I will be driven insane overnight, but by morning it’s gone, as if it never was. I’m almost afraid to touch the place it lived, in case it thinks to come back, but so far the itch is quiet, satisfied, perhaps, by whatever dreams it ate in the night. 251111 ... ovenbird At 5 a.m. my heart is possessed by a demon and there’s no one around to exorcise it. All of its mechanisms are going too fast, driven by something out for a joy ride. I don’t think it intends for my heart to survive. My heart will be abandoned in a ditch once the motor has caught fire and it’s leaking all the fluids that keep it alive. I’m forced to jump into the moving vehicle and take the wheel from the hijacking ghost. I win this time. But next time, who knows. 251112 what's it to you? who go blather from