anatomically-correct manikans

he fell asleep 

on my shoulder

a total stranger

next time I saw him

he was on a slab

abdomen splayed open

a butterflied lamb leg

a nurse whispered 

excitement was mounting 

in the hospital corridor 

seems they had discovered 

an entirely new organ

somewhere 

next to his bowels

a little rubberoid bulb

you heard it squeak 

didn't you?

oh glistening pulp!

relentless fountain of 

liquid plastic and blood

please

stop

don’t press down 

so hard on that part

it might burst

Reviews

[Eilis]

This felt like a contrast between the humanity of our encounters and the somewhat colder nature of discovery. Trying to think how to express that more clearly. You begin with the man resting on your shoulder and end with the man being a subject. Something is found within him but it’s not his humanity. It’s something potentially useful and as such the value of the person becomes utilitarian rather than capable of holding spirit, memory, the remnants of love—his humanness is no longer relevant or perhaps no longer visible within this new context.

The nurse’s laughing and the flurry of activity suggest a kind of detachment that we know well in modern life —and all through human history. Anytime groups or species are marginalized for some promised or imagined gain we face this vortex or deliberate choice but history shows that this deliberateness often leads to shame or regret.

Science can be characterized as a cold discipline but it’s also ended suffering for many over time through exploration and discovery. The voice here seems to be searching for some kind of resolution to the starkness of contrasts. Or perhaps some kind of answer. Many writers have explored the dangers of too much reason or too much emotion being the leading force. Too much reason can allow abhorrent things while too much emotion can have unpredicted consequences as well. I think some questions don’t have clear answers. I think that more and more.

[SkinlessFrank]

This was written some time ago, and so I can’t recall what I was thinking then. But you are right about the dialectical nature of the thought stream. It fascinates me how scientists can become so enamored by a discovery that they fail to consider what it might mean in the broader sense. When I wrote this, artificial intelligence was known to just a few treated it as a personal toy. Ernest Rutherford when he split the atom probably falls into this category too. I can attest to this feeling of blind awe when I have fallen upon my own small “discoveries”. It must be akin to a religious experience that for the moment is blinding.

[Kenneth The Poet]

And we wouldn't want that now would we?

[. serah .]

-- i'm viewing this post through the prism of my own experiences... and i see the description of a metaphorical cyst which contains memories... which... if pushed... could explode and let loose a "relentless fountain of liquid plastic and blood"... -- in my life, this cyst contains memories of people who were either too fake and false ("liquid plastic") or people who harmed me (by creating the kind of unpleasantness that leads to verbal or even actual bloodshed)... -- i don't relive these memories but they are there... and sometimes their presence causes such discomfort that i wonder if they are a tangible something which has now become a part of my anatomy... -- incredibly insightful work, Maestro D. ... -- yet again, i've found expression in your words... thank you for that...

[...]

laughing...lemons, lots and lots of lemons, and vinegar, and baking soda, and and and...pepto-- Recommendations, even requirements, for this mental laboratory of unique ingenuity :)

[J]

[wonders if this etiology is more prevalent than science is obviously aware!] all those breathe mints out there that neutralize nothing. this explains it all! oh the way your mind works is a wonder ...

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

Vinegar and chive - fabulous!