Arsenic Lobster poetry journal
Issue Fifteen
Winter 2007
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Procedure
Claudia Burbank

There was much to be ashamed of.
I hid the best I could behind a black pearl,

Pictured, I think, a pinto pawing air.
Why this should be I don’t know.

I was still new to doctors then, their sniffing, pointing,
Pushing through unsterile doors like tummlers.

The scapular I wore until it rotted off
Is the story of my life: spectacular

Refusals to be left or to leave, the red
Red plush of the obvious heart.

I never saw them coming, but simply
Awoke to dull knives, dull fire, linoleum.

I have since relinquished
Oxblood, scalpel, scalp.

About Claudia Burbank

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