peppermint oil

that cooling feeling just might be idiocy.

carousing through the net & pausing to finger the thinning spots on his scalp

remembering the moments when women in his earlier life would run their fingers through the flowing locks---

having watched his compadres become cue-balls or

slowly peppering away individuals on their way to

pure silver,

he stumbled upon an herbalist blog that

discussed pouring peppermint oil

upon his noggin to stimulate the follicles of

his hair

in hopes that he would be handsome again.

 

vanity provided the impetus to push our man in

question

to purchase his peppermint oil

and to dowse his head in the straight substance

in hopes of growing hair

throwing much caution to the wind

running with the advice of the

herbalist.

 

in no time at all his head began to cool

it cooled to the point of freezing & then the

freezing began to burn & then the burning

began to numb his whole head until the feeling

seemed to creep inside his throat

panging at his temples & he

found himself sitting on his

knees in front of the toilet

trying to make himself puke

but the sickness jerked at

him as if it would never

quite stop.

 

he stuck his index finger down his throat

forcing himself to vomit &

though the vomiting took his

mind off the sickening

numbness of his whole

head, it only did so for a few seconds---

he crawled on hands & knees to his bed,

laying there in a world of brand new pain

until morning when he awoke from a sleep he

somehow attained---

after rolling out of a skull-crashing dream

he threw away the oil &

not a hair grew anywhere near his head.