ManicWorld Magazine

So this woman
hands me a card that says
Kambo! Frog Medicine Practitioner 
with her website frogfaith*
and a picture of a giant monkey frog
hands fluttering like wings
her body vibrates like a rocket
as she launches 
into a vague history lesson
about this 
centuries old South American ritual
and segues 
into a spirited sales pitch: 
how Kambo 
is a super cleanse and panacea,
how it was the worst experience of her life 
but she can’t wait to do it again
and offer the magical experience to others 
she rolls up her sleeve
I see the Kambo burn scars
shaped like a double-six domino,
where the lethal mucus was applied 
that cured her addiction, 
her mother’s migraines 
and cut their string of misfortune 
her words plummet
into my cold coffee
like a Ruffed Grouse
knocked from the sky 
when my eyes tell her no