Nervous Tic

by Cory McClellan

It begins like a stutter in a nursery rhyme.
Eye volumes fluctuate
with capillaries colliding queries of lost keys against o r “.

Facial is the most timid of the twelve cranial nerves.
There is a residue surrounding the cerebrum,
a membrane of tape recorders catching lost voices with butterfly nets.
The electromagnetic waves in nicknames
can cause the lip muscles to spasm with hallucinations of 5:00 am rendezvous.

The tongue is a prisoner of its own paranoia.
To silence hiccups practice counting to ten in a different language;
nerves become confused by unfamiliar phonemes.