npm2020: poetry videos day 19 "Thinking Wrinkles"

My National Poetry Month Project 2020 is to record a short video each day in April, presenting my published poems to poetry lovers of all ages.

Today's poem might be a good one if your coronavirus quarantine is beginning to feel long and dull and mind-numbing.  It probably needs an additional illustration...

Thinking Wrinkles

I saw a picture of my brain today—

a wet, gray helmet

of wrinkles and folds,

a squish of soft tissue

caught on a background of black.

Now I’m lying in bed, working my way

in and out, over and under,

through the tunnels and

canyons and fissures

that squiggle and squirm in my skull,

And I wonder how something so gray,

so hidden and still,

so ugly and dull,

will dance with the rowdy scarlet sparkle

of all my dreams tonight.