This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “the 23 enigma” cc&d (v263) (the June 2016 issue, v263, the 23 year anniversary issue) You can also order this 6"x9" issue as a paperback book:

Order this writing in the book Clouds over the Moon the cc&d Jan. - June 2016 collection book		get the 318 page Jan. - June 2015 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

The Fever Which She Inspired

Brian Looney

    My artsy girl, Anne, was exhilarated by the fever, as if it augmented her powers, for she was artistic unto exhaustion. The elevation of her temperature contributed to her art, but now and then I forced an ice bath on her, though she resisted weakly and accused me of “dousing” her inspiration. In her delirium, she achieved a greater delirium. Fodder for the very remarkable machine. It was then I witnessed strength in spite of frailty.

    My artsy girl, Anne, always had a penetrating stare. But beneath the fever’s patronage, it was positively ethereal, eyes incredibly old or incredibly young—I never knew which. Her face was taut with strain, pasty skin stretched across a pair of catty cheeks, whose angles never failed to surface with her temperature, which gave her an ascetic bearing. The ideas caused a trembling in her limbs; her forehead overlapped by charcoal bangs I loved to kiss with burning lips.

    My artsy girl, Anne, was the type to make me worry. For she liked to push herself, and I knew (someday) her heart would stop, and that fever (at last) would subside. She left this world with brush in hand, as I hope to at my keyboard.

    My artsy girl, Anne, rarely came to bed. She snoozed upright at table; she slept upright in chairs. Other times she just collapsed, collapsed beneath the fever, the fever which inspired her, the fever which she inspired.

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