Requiem: A Student Discovers Jason Shinder

26Oct08

From Glints of Light

Rescue by Jason Shinder

When the doctor inserts his two fingers
into my mother rectum, the pupils of her eyes
move like blue-fish under the ice in a bucket
before they are carried away.

I am climbing out of a well and offering her some water.
I am picking up her body which weighs
less than her clothes, when the doctor rubs his fingers
against the swollen tissue of her small intestine
like the torn blouse of a lover.

Already the air on her lips is like bread crumbs.
Already the white bones of her skull soften.
Already the moon is sticking out of her left eye.
I am hiding in the right ear of my mother.
I am running like a criminal through the streets of her body
trying to return everything I ever stole.

Filed under: Commonplace Books, Creative Writing at Longwood, Life, The Beautiful Work   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Books, Commonplace Books, Creative Writing at Longwood, Death, Drama, Fiction, Jason Shinder, Life, Life and How to Live It, Nonfiction, Poetry, Poets, Requiem, Rescue by Jason Shinder, Students, Teachers, The Beautiful Work, Writers, Writing, Writing Community, Young Writers