the doctor asks me to describe my headache

and i falter. how to describe this erratic pulsing behind my right ear? the pain detonates in clusters, punching through me like a boxer. these unannounced flares a protest at how i bear weight, my sedentary ways. how i wish i could have told him about the tiny earthquakes in my shoulders. traced the fault lines running through my neck into my skull’s base. scalp impossibly tender, hurt blooming at the slightest touch. to name the ache is half the healing; control, the ultimate placebo.