Laboratory

I swear I can feel my own cilia

fondling intruders

the way a redneck might with ripened

seventeen year old stepdaughters.

Giving nematodes two heads

is easy.  I just have to be steady

and bored.  And no, this parasite

did not consume itself.

So the fetal pig’s heart is in the wrong

place.  It happens to humans too.  Freaks

living normally within the boundaries

of biology.

If I stare at the serum on the slide

long enough, my mitochondria will

make music again like Melissa Etheridge’s

lung capacity.

I've held a scalpel –

I know how important it is

to breathe.