Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Quick Sneeze Transcription




A sawdust haze and feverish itch surrounds the nose as the eyes begin to smart, provoking an anticipatory and reassuring, though useless, compulsion to touch the nib of the nose with the side of the hand.

A tightening of the facial muscles, a clenching of eyes, collides with a whip lash, neck jolting snap, releasing an orgasmic gunshot of compressed snot sprayed out into the world, as we intone the universal prayer of the photic sneeze reflex 'Achoo!'.

The sense of release, comparable to post coital bliss, is experienced for a few milliseconds as the senses come back into focus. A short-lived moment of oneness and peace are felt in this instance, like breaking the sharpness of a migraine; tension has been eased, a mist cleared, balance reestablished.

We come down from this heady zen like height instantaneously, to reach for the tissue paper, to wipe the straggling wet and blow the slimy remnants. Recovering is like opening a window in a dust-filled room to the bright, clear air of a summer morning.