Two Poems

Sliding Filament Tragedy

Under the electron micro-
scope, deep of epi, amidst peri,
 within endo, under sarco:

regular small town
tragedy involving cast
of filaments, no love story

H-band: thick in the head,
also club-headed, ball &
chain, dark center of regret

I: baby-girl pink, thin enough
might just disappear, especially
holding needy octopus Z, wish

H’d disappear before action potential
arrives, no more cross bridge on active
site. Dark, straight-As constant, but

do I not spot when transected?
Pearl necklace twisted tight,
troponin tropomyosin calcium
ions don’t care, adenosine tri-
phosphates don’t care, no relief til
decomposition sets in, from
sarcomeres to myofibrils to fibers
to fascicles to muscles: life of pain,
rigor mortis, then sleep, at long last


Somewhere Over the Cranial Fossa

Under morbid cranial rainbow of scalp,
aponeurosis, periosteum,
cranium, dura mater, arachnoid
and pia mater, somewhere over the
cranial fossa,
                           (where dreams of med school and
nursing degrees come to die),
                                                       lab students
poke at dead cats, make wobbly videos,
come up with dirty mnemonics, lyrics,
poetry, choreography: Hands up high
for olfactory, x at face for optic,
thick descending v oculomotor,
trigeminal hands giving the trochlear
finger, dizzying facial in the ears, IX
X XI spill from jugular foramen,
tongue out.

                            Meanwhile, ghost cat chases toy mouse
made from its own CNS, cow spinal
column sections stew, 52 sheep brains and
eyeballs await bisection, dissection.