TWO POEMS | MICHELE GLAZER

body

My brother grew a benign tumor in a useless organ.

You grew a tumor I said in the same language 
I would use later to describe tending the tomatoes.

The thymus functions to receive the immature T cells 
produced in the red bone marrow and train 
them into functional mature T cells that attack 
only foreign cells. 

The thymus is an organ we outgrow 
and then it withers. If everything 
with age withers—never 
mind, I am 
familiar with the foreign cell,
with the belief that a foreign cell inhabiting a body 
will always be an outsider.

Inside the body is the answer to how the body moves. 

With slices finer than a scalpel might render, 
you think now you understand; what
do you understand 
about a corpse?     

At the Body Exhibit of shiny interiors 
I’m invited to inspect them from multiple angles awkward 
to the viewer who twists her neck and leans back to appreciate
how bodies in motion are suspended in mind, 
fitted into its song-red cavity; 
these bodies are real bodies I remind myself,
in poses: 
Heart Contracting 
Muscle Groups Engaging

It was so calm inside my brother 
the tumor would have killed him 
if he hadn’t first fainted, 
a faux feinting pointing
to rather than distracting from the site.

His fainting had nothing to do with a tumor but it signaled 
the doctors to look inside him.

Sometimes I think a sign is just desire imposed upon the arbitrary. 

Part of the job of a conductor is to point out what now is, how long now is

and when to let the held note go.

My mother at the end was a collection of parts flying in loose formation.

Never mind
that the garment of nervous system
tumbles

like a gown, in strings,
into the shape of 

redress 

Competing Elegies 

The service I’m not having        I’m not having at a church 

but the snow, shaken        down in tufts         by small birds 

whose landings flinch

the limbs

falls into itself:                blue holes 

in the lofted ground-snow. 

                                                        It is known

that what gives them this weight      is distance. 

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Michele Glazer teaches at Portland State University.

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Cover art by Sherita Trent. Eat Here. It's Cheap and Homemade! Still life photograph of 5x5 mixed media artwork.

Sherita Trent is a mixed media artist residing in Portland, Oregon. Her process is intuitive, detail oriented, and playful—producing works of art that exude her deep appreciation for the magic within the everyday moment. As a Black artist, she is particularly interested in reverbing the message that Black Joy is Resistance! You can see more of Sherita's work on Instagram: @ofquirkywonder and Facebook: www.facebook.com/ofquirkywonder. Keep an eye out for her Etsy shop coming soon!: www.etsy.com/shop/OfQuirkyWonder