Circus Syndrome

Chloe Bowman

Are you landscape or portrait? 
x-axis or y-? 
Long or tall? 

Change frames like a marionette
with strings on the inside 
bearing your weight, up they haul. 
Musculoskeletal puppeteer? Yes! And also magician,  
charming sanguine snakes skyward
at your autonomic call. 

But, peripherally the trapeze artists totter, 
the juggler fumbles a ball, 
the human pyramid sways, light at its head. 
Video chaos and stereo too. The ribbons fall limp encircling the hall, 
the clown misses their cue, 
the screens start to flicker. 
The top is too hot! No, too cold. Now so hot. 
The room’s air has bid a hasty withdrawal, 
the roar all around cannot be tamed. 

Am I landscape or portrait? 
Am I hurt? 
Did I fall? 

Change frames like a marionette. 
But with hypo-magician, I’ve often no strings at all.

The Science

The poem presents a first-person experience of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) and hypotension (low blood pressure). While hypertension (high blood pressure) is more commonly discussed, there is less public awareness of hypotension. Most people will experience some form of temporary hypotensive symptoms from time to time, for example if they are dehydrated, but it can also occur as a result of ageing, medication, or underlying conditions like PoTS.

Normally, when we stand, the autonomic nervous system responds by narrowing blood vessels in the legs to push blood (and oxygen) upwards. With PoTS, faults in this response system mean that standing causes a dramatic drop in blood pressure, causing the heart to pound as it tries to compensate. This often leads to symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, tunnel vision, brain fog, and fainting. There is also some evidence that post-viral syndromes like ‘long COVID’ include autonomic dysfunction, which may be why they commonly have similar symptoms.

The Poet

Chloe Bowman (she/her) is a STEM tutor, author, and aspiring science communicator based between the UK and UAE. She is a founding contributor to the Communicating Curiosity newsletter and is interested in exploring how the creative arts can be integrated into education, engagement, and communication more broadly, given the boost to her personal wellbeing she experienced after dedicating more time to artistic exploration and creative pursuits.

Next poem: Corners in America, 1968/2025 by Linda Vigen Phillips