Valentina Cano

Anti-Depressant Waltz


He began to see things in

too many colors.

Spikes of anger that

took shape before him

like taloned domes.

He tried to wring the colors out

in a struggle of limbs.

He tried to make things

clear (glass, pool-water) once again.

They refused to leave.

The colors soaked into his carpet,

dancing in a taunt of scales,

dipping under him,

sliding to the edge of the kitchen tiles

and back again.

He clutched at his head

with hands that swelled

in a nightmare of congealed blood

thick, chunky,

like ripped blood sausages.




Valentina Cano is a student of classical singing who spends whatever free time either writing or reading. Her works have appeared in Exercise Bowler, Blinking Cursor, Theory Train, Magnolia's Press, Cartier Street Press, Berg Gasse 19, Precious Metals and will appear in the upcoming editions A Handful of Dust, The Scarlet Sound, The Adroit Journal, Perceptions Literary Magazine, Welcome to Wherever, The Corner Club Press, Death Rattle, Danse Macabre, Subliminal Interiors, Generations Literary Journal, Super Poetry Highway, Stream Press, Stone Telling and Perhaps I'm Wrong About the World. You can find her here: http://coldbloodedlives.blogspot.com