Probe

In a movie I have never seen: a small-town drunk

stumbles into a beam of light & wakes up convinced

he was abducted by aliens, convinced a hole opened in the sky

& swallowed him — said they did something strange to his body

some kind of experiment, said a hole opened, said cold light

cauterized him shut, redefined that red theory, chrome instrument

turned him into a skinless puzzle, a scrambled egg

sealed back into its shell. Madness, too, can be accumulative.

When my blood seemed uncontrollable, ran messy with pulp

down their fingers, my cousins finally left the room, laughing

closing the basement door behind them.