AFFORDABLE CARE

by Megan Merchant 


Cartoon by Pat Bagley 


I’m sorry America, please have a seat.
By popular vote we are going to remove

your third rib
without a plan for replacement.

You should pray,
or at least mutter something biblical near a statue.

We are going to snipe the surgeon and replace
him with the homeless man

who is stationed by the automatic door
with his styrofoam cup, tipped with whiskey.

He has seen so many injured and sick welcomed
under the florescent lights that he must

be deft at holding a knife, understand how
to point the sharp edge away.

This is a beautiful approach, believe me,
do not underestimate periphery experience,

it is so close to precision, you won’t even know.


Megan Merchant is mostly forthcoming. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections: Gravel Ghosts (Glass Lyre Press, 2016 Book of the Year), The Dark’s Humming (2015 Lyrebird Prize, Glass Lyre Press, forthcoming 2017), four chapbooks, and a children’s book with Philomel Books. 
href="http://ift.tt/2iJQAHf">       

Related Stories

 

Related Posts :

  • ANOTHER GUATEMALAN CHILDby Jan Steckel A 16-year-old boy died Monday at a Border Patrol station in Texas, becoming the fifth child from Guatemala to die sinc… Read More...
  • A GIRL STORY, CIRCA 1960by Marsha Owens We rode the same school bus, but Trudy had boobies. Like a scrub bush by the road she sat alone, her face pressed to the… Read More...
  • LSD AT T***P RALLYby Nate Alaska A bronze extraterrestrial preaches to an ocean of oscillating flesh and bright red mesh He is deep sea indigo, scab scar… Read More...
  • FACING YOUR OFFICIAL ENDby Mickey J. Corrigan Tweeted by Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes. Some men aren't content with breakage, they have to burn yo… Read More...
  • BIRTH OR DEATHby Lynn White After signing the country’s strictest abortion ban into law Wednesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) explained her reasonin… Read More...

0 Response to "AFFORDABLE CARE"

Posting Komentar