Description of a Physical State
Jerry Sexton
 

". . . the disembodiment of reality . . . the rupture that seems determined to multiply itself between things and the feelings they produce in our minds . . ." - Artaud

What a crazy reason for going crazy. Here's a physical state for you: in this intimate setting, someone has just said, "I love you."
         A weakness in the muscles, a curtain drawn across the senses. The other is not the other, but a source of disbelief. Arms, having their own volition, open. A quick sensation of falling; pleasant. Pressure felt on the skin is sought, maintained, to relieve and match the expected sensory image occurring in the mind before actual contract. Thought is banished; words no longer exist. A sensation localized behind the eyes shifts to the lips, to changing portions of the surface. The mind is here and

presents to the brain a sensation of tingling that grows until it delimits the whole body. The instantaneous ordering of things in the mind shifts both in logic and emotion. It reforms anew. Yet there is a constancy underneath:     
        Physical states where the real is most directly experienced, where words, classifications, order are set aside - states that unexpected words may trigger.

Jerry Sexton is a student in the MFA program in Creative Writing at San Jose State University in San Jose, California, and has published in a variety of literary magazines.