When I See Her Name

Just one view and my blood goes cold. First it all floods up to my face. Instant headache. Have I been standing on my head? What is rationality? What is reality? Ice forms in my veins, forces its way through my circulatory system as a slushy mesh. Maybe it’s adrenaline shooting out of my kidneys. Danger—run! it tells me. I am stabbed in my gut. Sharp, staggering pain, and everything in me is drained. My ice slush blood leaves my body. My bones are ice icicles that shatter. Everything is too bright. Everything is too quiet. Everything has defined outlines that remind me of pre-migraine aura. Feels like a drug injection. My brain strains to see more. I feel pressure behind my eyes. I burn. I freeze. I’m numb. And all of this in less than a second.