Different Names for Lamotrigine

after Sam Sax

Bitter thing - swallowed

with bread, cake,

a curtain of water closing my throat,

anything to keep from tasting

the slight in my magician's hand.

Magic is any science

you do not understand. So, too,

is God. Faith is

the way I trust the bitter taste will

turn me sweet; prayer

is how I start every day with it

on my tongue

before any lover, before opening

the window to let

the morning sun make shadows

where there were none

before. My body is a haunted house

creaking under

its own weight. Love is anything that

banishes the ghosts.