there are time when the world is quiet enough
but there are times when it isn’t
the swell creeps up slowly
while i’m not paying attention
while i’m otherwise occupied
while i’m thinking that the world is quiet enough
but then it’s screaming
and i’m screaming so loudly
that i can’t hear myself think
that everything is so loud
and bright and jangly
and all the smells are suffocating
but then i realize
everything
including my screaming
is inside my head
and then the world is quiet enough again
04.05.24
Post-script: The title is from a song that Björk covered so elegantly that it might as well have been an original. The song captures the undulations of sensory overwhelm so well that I was prompted to look up whether she’s Autistic, and apparently, she self-identifies as such.