they call the phenomenon “the brain zaps.”
…………I call it the air before a thunderstorm.
……………………metal on your tongue. scent more
………………………………ozone than petrichor. harsher.
…………………………………………you’re all sweat and dizzy
………………………………from the buzz, the crackle of it
……………………reverberating in your head:
…………withdrawal a livewire flicking
across the road like a cat’s tail.
if my crâne is to be made plasma globe
…………then why aren’t your fingers glowing
……………………at my temples: neon violet and red
………………………………and electric blue. picture my skull
…………………………………………as lava lamp, globs of gelatinous lobe
………………………………rising and falling in cerebrospinal fluid.
……………………everything feels mushy, feels delicate
…………as I imagine any brain would feel after
shock—synapses misfiring for lack of.
Ambrose Albert (he/him|il) is a transmasc poet living on the traditional unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Wolastoqiyik people. His debut collection of poetry Bec & Call (Nightwood 2018) won the New Brunswick Book Awards’ Fiddlehead Poetry Prize and he was Fredericton’s Poet Laureate from 2019-2021. Ambrose’s chapbook mal à l’aise came out with Anstruther Press in 2024. He is currently working on a poetry collection and a novel about a transman experiencing an immaculate pregnancy.
