Eye Tray. Army Training School for Nurses. Walter Reed Hospital., 1920
Glass Negative
Image Courtesy of the Library of Congress
& the wand inside me—
I am looking at the screen
& the doctor is looking
for poison. Listen closely.
Some women go to hell
& come back without
turning the other cheek.
Every dream asks
for a reckoning.
View from inside me:
Nothing registers my touch
yet everything can touch me
is a memory.
Now Houston is on the lip
of a long green spring.
A bundle of bad cells
has the capacity
to grow & attack the body.
With a turn of a wand,
the ultrasound refutes
ghosts entirely.
He is not part of my world
& I am no longer in sight
of his perceptions—
I pull on my street clothes.
The door leads skyward.