Mass Effect

Katy Lederer

 

Pushed together, pulled apart, we were purported pluripotent.
We developed as an organ, a benign and beating heart.

We sought physicians for histology. Discovered spinal symmetry.
Within the sacred bowl of life, our innards spilled in red array.

I wondered what you'd have to say if in your mouth you grew a tongue.
I wondered what I'd have to say if in my head I grew a mouth.

Instead we moved into a house, connected by a modem.
A surgical removal could have cured us of our malady.

But seeking to remain benign, we discoursed through telepathy.
How long could we have lived like this?

With our then-rudimentary eyes we saw shapes coming toward us:
amorphous and black, shedding tears. We had nothing to say.

 
Copyright © 2012 by Katy Lederer. Used with permission of the author.

Poems by This Author

Love by Katy Lederer
We go back to our house. We are lovers
That Everything's Inevitable by Katy Lederer
That everything's inevitable


Further Reading

Related Poems
Mean Free Path [excerpt]
by Ben Lerner
Mercury Rising (A Visualization)
by Jena Osman
Sentimental Atom Smasher
by Darcie Dennigan