Circuit Overload

They crossed the street,

shoulders hunched beneath the orange streetlight,

and suddenly my thoughts went sideways—

tangled in static, clumsy and hot.

I stumbled on words,

trip on my own breath,

like my brain had rebooted

without asking.

That dumb heat rises,

rewires the quiet wiring

in a loop, skipping

like a scratched record,

playing only their smile,

only their step away,

only the ache of too much.