MS Nocturne with Fuse, Crosshairs, and Irreparable Fissure

 

my brain’s a dirty bomb
 
lashed with lightning
 
a series of losses
 
my doctor makes
 
no promises
 
yet I cleave to
 
a needle skimming
 
not puncturing
 
just a needle and
 
not a fuse
 
 
a malcontent } a sycamore
 
with lesions } my future
 
scried on a readout } the atlas
 
of my body } fissuring
 
my right eye } crosshaired
 
yes } I can still feel
 
my footsole } not numb yet
 
if the insurance } holds out
 
some pills } a few MRIs a year
 
and if I’m careful } no detonation
 
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Emily Rose Cole is the author of a chapbook, Love & a Loaded Gun, from Minerva Rising Press. She has received awards from Jabberwock Review, Winning Writers, Philadelphia Stories, and the Academy of American Poets. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2018, Spoon River Poetry Review, The Pinch, and Southern Indiana Review, among others. She holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and is a PhD candidate in Poetry and Disability Studies at the University of Cincinnati.

 … return to Issue 12.1 Table of Contents.