New studies—confessions—
show the brain
everywhere, that EEGs are but a single line
of body music,
that stomachs as well as eyes think.
And the spirit? Removing the liver has caused
a corpse
to sit up or scream.
Is it the reflex
behind a shudder, the quick pullback from fire?
Maybe.
When brown trickled from your mouth,
not blood really
but from some rusted
part,
your future appeared only in others.
The scalpel cut the cornea
while you watched but could not blink.
Defining death is a convenient business,
the protocol takes only the time of
a dental cleaning,
and changes nearly yearly.
I did not know this, only that a dead liver
won't work, without the brain
the body decays,
its messengers
fall prey or sleep.
Why not imagine pain
a part
of the body too anesthetic
the benefit of the doubt.
