Metaphors for My Body on the Examination Table
by Anne Duncan
— after torrin a. greathouse
A network of traffic lights all blinking red;
A swarm of ants forming a raft
from their bodies to survive
a forty year flood; Animal; Passenger; Prophet;
A horse, two feet back from the start,
bucking; The jockey, booted
feet sliding into the stirrups;
A two part name; A birth date;
Miles and miles of ticker tape;
A diagram of a mannequin body,
every limb and joint a red
pen note: pain upon- chronic since-
burning- aching- constant-
diagnosed- possible- suspected-;
An object impossibly suspended
by the frictioned ridge of the fingerprint;
The pulp of a pomelo cut free from the skin
by a nimble paring knife against the palm.
The white chalk outline of a body
superseded by the flesh of it;
Pop of water hitting the fry pan;
Static frequency of my plastic
childhood radio; A postcard meadow,
snake unseen somewhere
in technicolor blooms; The sky's expanse
pooling past the meridian line to frame
Greetings from [EXAM ROOM 3]!; The unshot gun
on the mantle; The deer head mounted above,
waiting still for it all to pass;
A list of symptoms that need repeating; A claim
to medical necessity; A number on a scale from one-