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Teratogenesis


by J.M. Regan






The supression of mitosis
in rapidly dividing
primordial cells
like a lost ship's
the lymphoma's slow search
for a docking surface
the launch of the Lance missile
the body in love
telegraphing photons
the decay products of light
so in the warmest months
did the original
tangle of pathology
awaken from the early clay

In the hot
afterwake of Baker Day
in the city of planned streets
and exitings trees and atrocities
successful births last words
in a sterile chamber
of the heart of mercies
I was born and made
limbless and voiceless
one of them
offensive to God
who said
thou shalt not sing
thou shalt not
dance

You've perfected also
your own
command performance
engulfing engulfing
like a rising
body of water
or a python its prey
the heat source
amans ex natura
we go on all night
inch by loving inch
between naps and cigarette breaks

In the boardroom
in shirtsleeves
the patriarchs lunch and argue
between the chilled soup and semifreddo
about pattern slopes and dose contours
attack assessment systems
Dew and Pinetree
Seek Igloo
declassified in memoranda
summarized in annual reports
and appearing finally in dreams
written on
the underbellies of clouds

During a similar green summer
of leaves and griefs
the special einsatz groups
fan out like swifts
over Poland
Estonia
to nest
in every kept village
and devour the heart of culture

You told me
relax relax
and when
in a despairing effort to please
I did for an instant
it's about time you gasped
but time had nothing
to do with it
time for us
had split its chrysalis
and flown off like a moth
at the speed of light

What if what if
I should eat myself free
free of this doll's torso
break through its gray rags
into processionary flight
all legs and flying engine
genitalia singing
a holistic
omnipotent summons
what if we should dance
in mid air in tandem
picture in our track
whole meadows of eggs
a blizzard of wings
on the pollinate sea
the malignance reversed
in each germ of life