“Apollo brings a camera to the moon” and “Stethoscope”

By Michele Worthington

Apollo brings a camera to the moon

Right there right there is mother lazuline!

blue jewel floating bright in black abyss

round Eden twinned in swirling nothingness

her thin night sheets islanded serene.

A truth well-known but earlier unseen-

all life, all sense is borne from wine dark bliss

and held aloft with silk spun preciousness,

symphonic chlorophyll, idyllic green.

But spurning photo proof that we are kin

marooned together, breathing air as one,

tin chthonic soldiers drilled through sleeping skin

for oil and money, they ignored the sun

for gold and power, soured milk with sin

for marbles, smothered each other’s sons.

____

Stethoscope

                                                                  tugged

from the back of the closet

a suitcase, a blanket, a …black creature

with limbless quickness–

                                                                  gasp-

your heart constricts

in ancient reflex

at the proximity

of snake—

                                                                   sigh

upon the rug  limp and lifeless

purpose ceased

ear piece missing

no teeth

                                                                    deep breath

this old appendage scooped

up before coffee, rubber weight

upon your neck home at eight

dropped onto kitchen counter

bouncing back into hectic dreams

                                                                       inhale

tightness charted wheeze, optimism

siphoned by long shifts listening

to disease diminishing hiss

through last century’s plumbing

                                                                      breathe

pack

unpack

each symptom

pack

unpack

each diagnosis

                                                                       exhale

years squeak by like pleural rubs

murmurs travel long acoustic roads

then

swoosh

like a sheet pulled off the bed

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