When I tell my aunt I have a headache, she says to

1. Take a leaf of mint and rip a piece off

In her sleep, my roommate screams. For a moment, 

it sounds like she’s drowning until she lays her head 

down like nothing happened. All anyone wants nowadays is  

2. Roll it between your fingers to release the oil

toothpaste, floss picks, the fictitious west-

manufactured safety sold at the price of complacency. 

It’s much more effective, after all, than to

3. Place it in the nostril on the side of the headache 

shoot radicals the way they used to. O creators 

of unintentional martyrs, messiahs! Revel in

capitalism of all colors! Country of endless freedom, 

4. Look down at your feet, plug the other nostril 

artificial flavors, a progress paradigm of democracy 

unearthed alongside black-gold oil. New-wave Zionism,

a desert in bloom, who will be the next empire to fall? 

 

5. Breathe deeply three times

When I was a kid, I had this tic: 

I couldn’t stop laughing until the final sound of the laugh felt 

right. I’d repeat the motion, become breathless trying.