Self-Portrait as M.C. Escher Drawings

Kaleidoscopes in the eyes
fracture her clavicles onto
the ceiling, his stubble projected
onto the wall across the room.
Flower vases hang
in the air.
Everything is where
nothing is.
It’s all spilling, doubling
back—material
materializing.
I reach for what’s there
not there.
I’m inside the Tel Aviv painting,
red roofs sloping towards the floor.
Aphasia empties my
storage locker of speech,
so I say “ice” where I’m out
looking for “underwear.”
Language is at risk—
its liver failing, tendons tearing,
liquifying along neurons
as daylight climbs out.
Right arm feels
absence, shoots like a beam to
nowhere—
I’m fumbling on the speedboat of my body
boarded with POWs of pain
with no idea
where.
I’m at the incision of
consciousness—
launching off for
future rooms
in memory where clarity
comes as I turn off my eyes,

where everything is
where every thing is.

Elly Katz
Elly Katz
At 27, verging towards a doctorate at Harvard, Elly Katz went for a mundane procedure to stabilize her neck. Somehow, she survived the resulting brainstem stroke caused by the physician’s needle misplacement. In the wake of this, she discovered the power of poetics. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Stardust Review, the Sacramento Literary Review, the Amsterdam Review, and many others. Her first collection of creative nonfiction, From Scientist to Stroke Survivor: Life Redacted is forthcoming from Lived Places Publishing (2025). Her first collection of poetry, Instructions for Selling-Off Grief, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books (2025).

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

The Roof

Subscribe

READ MORE

The Roof

Suzannah and I were just out of library school and didn't have much money, but everything fell into...

Unhinged

Desperationis the goth cousin of zany,zany is mania’sslutty little sister,and the tiny producersliving behind my eyesare having a...

Nadja: A Theme and Variations

Allegro Pierre and Nadja were meant to be together. He was sure of it. Or at least he meant...

The Art of the Found Poem: Interview With Nazifa Islam

Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press, 2013) and Forlorn...