A Morning Anatomy Class

Free verse.

       
        I
"Does anyone know an anatomy poem?" the professor asks
as sleepy students stagger to their seats
clutching cups of coffee.
No half-caf, or decaf
full-caf is the only choice for them
why choose no-caf?
There's a lot to cover and something has to stimulate them
though the professor is tempting them with poetry
offering imagination instead of just facts.
Their muscles freeze upon interrogation, their voices die.
"Neither do I. So I won't be reading one today."
The professor turns on the overhead.

        II
Cervical body wall and nerve, C 3,4, and 5,
intersecting tubes, esophagus, central tendon
a jumbled mess, even on paper.
What it all must look like under the skin
each cell pumping, squeezing, oozing,
thriving, dancing, fluttering
all to stay alive to be alive!
The idle class thinks nothing of it
their hands are at work

scribbling against white backdrops
coloring with clinking, clanking Crayolas
it sounds like a room filled with artists at work

a class of scribblers, dropping, picking their pencils.
working against the faux finished tables
numbering handouts one, two and three
marking their Arcuate ligament's aortas:
median, medial and lateral
they go: red and one, blue and two, and last marked three.
Lines and dashes, depicting aortas and cruses.
"What's that Latin for?"
The professor's stopped, a brief intermission
the sheepish students take the opportunity to drink their coffee.
The girls in the front chirp their answer as a church choir.
 "Crus, leg. Yes, the diaphragm has two legs.
Now to the gut."
A technical term.


        III
"As you see on the diagram
the Sphincter of Oddi sits right here--"
How did Oddi lose his sphincter?
"If you go to the lab this weekend and see the 106 year old woman,
the cadaver is still in good shape--"
She is Oddi. Short for Odessa.

The students should give thanks
to Odessa before they enter her
to show appreciation
of her sacrifice and generosity.

Dreaming they are doctors, adorned in sterile costumes
and as ancient Greek dramatists would
the students should throw their latex gloved hands
to the sky and cry:
'Odessa, Odessa, Cadaver Contessa!'
Joke with the cadaver as though she was human
'Odessa, how many have gone looking
for your diaphragm already?
I won't be in your vagina today, ha!
Oh, Odessa. I won't be in long.'
The students don't know her name.

        IV
"On Monday I'll bring my gut rotation machine,
you'll enjoy that!" the professor says, dismissing class.
He gives a slight dance, in the projector's spotlight,
showing how guts can rotate without a machine.
The students perk up and dispose their cardboard cups,
talking of the machine and probing into cadavers.