right hand pointing

To prevent his savage

episodes, Jake’s doctor

prescribed a maximum

dose of Valium.

 

It stilled his lips

and slowed the blinking

of his eyes,

keeping his face

 

blank as his bedsheets.

He barely even breathed.

As the dosage was reduced

over the grueling course

 

of several days, Violet

watched his brutal crawl

toward the distant homeland

of his Self, a Self infected

 

with the ineradicable,

though sometimes

prayerfully dormant,

virus of violence.