(Goldfish) Bowl Games

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After carrying around a pill to prevent migraines for over ten years, I for some reason left it behind when I came to the U.S., so of course this morning, for the first time in ten years, I started to feel a migraine coming on. As usual, it was triggered by a bright light —this time by a split between the blinds that allowed sunlight to  reflect off the TV screen. Dizzy with the beginning of the headache, nauseous and a bit blind, I stumbled into bed, pulled a pillow over my head to block the light and lay for about an hour, willing the pain to descend from my forehead to my hands to warm them. When my hands warmed, I then became aware of icy feet and decided to see if I could warm them via migraine energy as well. I fell asleep in the act, but upon awakening six hours later, I am now noticing that my feet are warm as well—more likely due to blankets than to brainpower. Nonetheless, after the first half hour of trying to get myself regulated, this poem came into my head. I knew it would be lost if I didn’t record it and my computer was lying closed on my bed next to me, so I roused myself long enough to jot it down. Can’t control these rhymes even when bigger things are going on in my head. In this case, it started with mentally painting the image of a cat. Then the bowl appeared and he gazed into it. The goldfish came last and the poem grew out of the image. Wish I could paint or draw and I’d try to show you what I saw. Lacking this, here is the poem:

jdbphoto

(Goldfish) Bowl Games

I watch them swim in graceful curves,
and though they’d make such fine hors d’oeuvres,
I wait and wait and wait and wait.
They have not served me one to date.

 

(By the way, this technique for ridding yourself of migraine headaches has worked for me three times now over a twenty year span. Prior to this, I just suffered for up to eight hours. Once I found there was a pill available to take in the first stages, I always carried one, but as noted above, had failed to bring it with me on this trip to the states, so my old mental remedy worked once again.)

15 thoughts on “(Goldfish) Bowl Games”

        1. lifelessons Post author

          Yes. A college friend of my sister’s told her of this technique fifty years ago! She also talked about rolling the pain up in a ball and tossing it up into the air above her head. I’ve used this for other pain, but the hand warming, to my great surprise, works.

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  3. Allenda.Moriarty

    I am grateful not to have migraines, but when I was living in Illinois and my feet were cold at night and I was too lazy, or cold , to get out of bed for a pair of socks or an extra blanket, I would mentally send heat to my feet.

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  4. Marilyn Armstrong

    I get migraines, but they are not nearly as bad as they were when i was younger. A lot of the time, i get the warning flashes and I can’t see much … but only half the time does the headache follow. I’m told this is not unusual. But boy, when they hit …

    Love your little poem. My dogs are singing it.

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  6. slmret

    It really didn’t take much serious thought to realize that your poem was about fish — goldfish was natural when you were talking about cats too, though I wasn’t sure if it was cats or dogs!!!

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      okcforgottenman pointed out I’d explained in the intro, but added Goldfish to the title just in case. I guess it is the leftover teacher in me that wants to make everything perfectly clear!!!

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