Spell

"In the early 1970s Cheever began to be plagued by spells of what he described as otherness. . . . These episodes had two components: olfactory, auditory or visual hallucinations and a simultaneous sort of brain freeze that left him unable to access words and names."

As far as I am
Able to ascertain
Under the weight
Of such a weighty
Quotation in prose,

I still maintain
Neither my mother nor
My mother's mother,
Evangelical, holy
Teetotalers both

Of them, ever had a reason
To complain of delirium
Tremens nor even
The buzz from one drink,
But they both died

In some delirious
Or at least deleterious
Fog of hegemonic
Amnesia, gabbling,
Gap-grinned, sweet, stinking,

Although they lived, both
Of them, fifteen years
Of breathing beyond
The swimming Cheever.
Can't say I blame him.