A Plastified Body
by Ruth A. M.
Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life (2014) by Dr. Gunther Von Hagens
Was this the immortality she wanted?
Fixed eyes in a plastified face
soul vacuumed out of her skin,
displayed like a Barbie,
visitors wandering into her mannequin eyes;
her dehydrated brain
sliced off, oozing memories
mixed in acetone and microplastics,
developed like film,
a clean way to immortalize
someone’s hard drive.
She is about to pirouette —in eternal tension,
formaldehyde replaces her body odor,
her neighbor posing as if still
able to run, next to a hand frying a fresh egg,
and a couple of friends capturing en passant;
her veins milked of their blood,
her lungs and uterus in canopic jars,
and her cured hands
wrapping her body like a sarcophagus,
preserving her soul for the next eternity:
a polymerized afterlife,
for which there is a sign up sheet by the exit.