A tiny bit of bone broke off
into my middle ear
& made the world spin
a tiny glacier calved
into my brain’s dark sea
the doctor says this happens to people
the brain’s oceans rise
& bits of calcium glacier
knock us off balance
make us forget what we’re saying
not as extreme as that photo
of the polar bear bobbing alone
on that melting glacier on that mailer you get
that asks you to help stop the planet
from heating up
this drought
this heat wave today
rising up around us
and this coast silently disappearing
like the hard edges of my equilibrium pill
dissolving in this glass of water
the doctor says rock your head
back & forth hard & fast
as if you were listening to speed metal
the bone glaciers sometimes shake
back into place
shake this world back into place

my son wailed last night
as I lifted him into bed
he was beyond tired
that point when simple things
fractal in the brain
you put too much pressure
on my feelings he said
& his big sister said when she
was a lot younger like four
she thought feelings were arms too
& that you only got dizzy
when you swung your feelings around
too fast like Pooh just did
looking for the Heffalump
& then they asked what that truck
driver was doing today
with his feelings & brain glaciers
before we got stuck in his traffic
his big rig having filigreed the freeway
with 43,208 gallons of wildflower honey

Noah Blaustein lives in Santa Monica. He is the author of Flirt and a forthcoming poetry collection, After Party.