Three Poems

The Fitzgeralds on Leave

They dawdled over coffee, loitered over wine. Laid
rolls to waste before an indifferent clock.
Her chair teetered between two stairs; food fled her plate.
Her face a dish he sent back.
She pinned infidelities to his lapel. He brushed them off like ashes.
Even at starting a fight: impotent. Public toilets afforded her minutes of privacy.
She collected wet coins. Pondered the year of their stamping.
He insisted she breathe; babied her with advice.
The breath he ordered arrived: shallow, inadequate.
The passing of cars vibrated her heart.

Bariatric Surgery a poem in two courses

1

Contemplate the operation; munch tripe
Finish your plate
This informational video provided
with industrial music in the background

Bariatric surgery with calming piano sonatas—
intestinal diasporas, tunnels tunnel, pouches pouched, clamps clamped, created a cut,
a cutting for spy-cam penetration

Gloved hands displace the liver 
reinforce the staple
divert digestive river

prevent breathing
make that, bleeding
jujunum—

juju gums
Line up the edges of the intestine
smooth and even

Two open windows, one pro ana, one chubby chasers
Bariatric surgery with calming curried potatoes—

Symptoms may not be associated with surgery.
The FDA may later forbid what she had done.
Should your internal organs break the law, take comfort,

they are invisible. Maybe she will consult her physician.
Maybe that was he, driving thru ahead of her.
The Doctor performs

a bariatric surgery on himself.
Bariatric surgery with soothing parsley frittatas—



2

Healing
“Chew up your food good. Four ounces maximum. Can’t eat Nachos from Taco Bell no more.”

Mega describes the donuts or the box they nest in.
Also, the value.

The writers or the dieters put the industry in “diet industry”.
Some writers are prophets:
they take dictation from those who require
no more than nine teaspoons of food a day.

Calorie counters consume corn by the kernel.

Maybe the only organ communicating
with her brain was her stomach. Maybe try a tapeworm.
There are those who consider the stomach
the “other brain”. Are the brain and the stomach one?
Bariatric surgery with calming piano sonatas—
Bariatric sundaes with salted peanut bananas—

Slow Slicing

Ling Chi (or Leng T’che) translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by a thousand cuts

the condemned person is killed using a knife to methodically remove
portions of the body over an extended period of time.

Ling Chi translated as death.
a knife over time
portions the body.

The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain, slowly.

                                                         mountain.
                              a
                                                                                                                                   slowly.
              classically.
The term língchí derives from a description of ascending

describes

a mountain

slowly

                                                                                                                                           knifed
                                                                                                                                           by
                                                                                                                                           time.

descending. slowly.

Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed
as especially severe, such as treason or killing one’s parents.

especially severe
crimes viewed
on a knife.

Western sensibilities assuaged in 1895 when GE Morrison reported, the slicing

is performed after death.

The jury is out                                                      on the mountain
on whether morphine increased or decreased pain. Eyes sliced
first. Psychological agony presumed to be worsened thusly.

Slow slicing was criminalized in 1905. There. There.