A Short Half-Life

by Betsy Mars

Trickling tears well up

from some dire place –

a hint of a headache

nags at the back of the

serotonin control center,

the receptor gates raised with the blood waters –

with the ebb and flow

of the chemical mix

of the unbalanced psyche.

I reach for an explanation and find it

in the still-snapped compartment

of my daily dosage:

the remains of a pill, forgotten in the morning rush

until the reawakening of the sleeping

black dog that claws at my raw edges.

* * * *

The severity of withdrawal symptoms is associated with the half-life of the drug involved. Half-life refers to how long half the concentration of a drug stays in the body. The longer the half-life, the less severe withdrawal symptoms will be, since the drug will have the capacity to taper itself off of the biological system of the person taking it.

Source: Pristiq Withdrawal (Desvenlafaxine) - Drugsdb.com http://www.drugsdb.com/rx/pristiq/pristiq-withdrawal/#ixzz4ySRqXsPY

Betsy Mars is a southern California poet who is in a perpetual battle with change – finally coming to some kind of a truce, and at times even love and acceptance. She is an educator, mother, animal lover, and over-excited traveler. Her poetry has been published in a number of places, both online and in print, most recently in Sheila-Na-Gig, The Ekphrastic Review, and Red Wolf Journal. Writing has given her a means to explore her preoccupation with mortality and her evolving sense of self.