Potential Side Effects
Emily Hockaday
Side effects may include time slippage, skipped heart beats, dry mouth, or tingling in the fingers. Sometimes patients experience lost depth perception, lost consciousness, lost coffee, and lost letters turning up after decades. In rare cases, side effects may include generalized numbness or pins and needles or singing off key in the grocery store. Some find themselves driving to the water at night unsure why they left their beds. Patients taking other drugs that affect serotonin receptors may experience more severe conditions. Common side effects include nausea, regret, a return to drinking, a loss of response to alcohol, a return to old desires, an inability to focus on one thing at a time, an interest in astronomy, and frequent adoration. In very rare cases there may be deadly side effects like becoming a neutron star or reading the end of the book before the beginning. Color may appear to ooze out of pores or skin may take on a musical texture. It may be hard to see the crack of light. You may experience squinting and weakening of facial muscles. Darkness might arrive swiftly with no sound.
Emily Hockaday is the author of In a Body (Harbor Editions 2023) and Naming the Ghost (Cornerstone Press 2022), along with six chapbooks. She is a De Groot Foundation Writer of Note, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, NY City Artist Corps, and NYFA Queens Art Fund recipient. Emily writes about ecology, parenthood, the urban environment, and chronic illness. She can be found online at www.emilyhockaday.com and @E_Hockaday.
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