Abstract
Contact (2022)t first, they called you incidental.As if to say, nothing to see here.They left unspoken, we still don't have answers about the lightheadedness when you stand or the imbalance between your ears.They mentioned you because they'd found something observable, just not what they sought when they placed me in that tube.No one had previously searched inside my skull, so before this scan, we had no way of knowing how long you'd resided there.A bright core surrounded by a dark ring.An inverse of the moon blocking the sun.Perhaps you'd arrived at my birth, yet for over 45 years, you'd stayed dormant.They reassured me that despite your appearance as a cluster of cells, enlarged and thin-walled vessels in the shape of a berry, you were not malignant.As far as we knew then, you would remain unremarkable. Partiality (2023-March 2024)You stayed stealthy, even as your surrounding atmosphere began to shift.Subtle enough that at first, no one held you responsible.A few weeks after the first detection, as I sat typing on my laptop, I began to lose my words, my language, if only for a few seconds.I might not have even noticed, had the searing chest pain not immediately followed, then disappeared without a trace.A storm that blew in and out in less than a minute.My ability to speak, my voice returned, and I continued the task I'd paused a moment earlier.A Eclipsed