I Radiate

Cranial drain

the fluids from my brain

Sop it up with a piece of stale bread

            Can you taste my dance of medical

            tests, florescent lit and dizzying?

            Can you taste my mouth

            when they call to say

            nodule in lung in breast in skull

I seep open

I mourn

Go ahead, expose me

Tear me open

Rip off this flimsy paper gown that

shrouds me like the ghost   I am

floating through hospital corridors

through chambers with automatic

doors that open and close on whim

on gurneys that always smell

the same

Go ahead, drain me

I’ll radiate I’ll radiate

I radiate

I shine I shine from that hole

they burrowed in my belly

I shine so damn bright the hospital

staff can barely see me

I seep open

I disappear

I radiate

I radiate