Donation by Jennie Owen
By Wasafiri Editor on July 27, 2020 in Poetry
Here, take my brain, each last lobe
one hundred billion empty neurons
firing, its shocks so blunt, my thoughts disrobed;
bruises and wounds unhidden.
Perhaps if part of me carries on
after the wires are pulled from the machines
I’ll feel the saw as they open the bone,
my skull will expose its final bloody scene.
Slice it, dice it, put it in a pot,
shake it, make it dance, swirl formaldehyde
through its grey and wormy meat, still shot
black with your name in ink spirals inside.
One day, I may return, fresh faced,
to find your stain’s not left a trace.
Jennie Owen’s writing has won competitions and has been widely published online, in literary journals and anthologies. She has MAs in both Creative Writing and English. She teaches Creative Writing and the Humanities and lives in Lancashire, UK with her husband and three children.
You can read another poem by Jennie Owen – ‘Today my heart is’ – in our forthcoming issue, Wasafiri 103, which is now available for pre-order.
