Dilation and extraction :: the poetry knook :: the poetry of stephen m. james

Dilation and extraction

(or I’ll never be half a football field of nerves)

A cell for a sitcom’s length,
in a cell, a miniature galaxy
pregnant with possibility,
alien with big black eyes waiting . . .
for the vacuum, of space is not
my home I leave my fetal cells
to my mother in my will to fight
off disease for decades.

Flush at my own funeral, medical waste:
somatic septic sewer cells of
fetus mixing with fecal matter or
dioxins in the air incinerating lungs
of pets and actual children–that wouldn’t be Green-
Pieces: umbilical, ambivalent, paraxial, personal.
An Inconvenient Choice: about warming in an oven
already too full for responsibility,
try, try, -mester the strength to ultra-sound
Good-bye.
~electric humming.

EXTENDED NOTES

AUTHOR NOTE

I believe that all your nerves lined up end to end is 50 yards. Studies have shown that after birth, fetal cells remain in the mother's body and could help repair her body and fight disease. Somatic cells are all human cells that aren't sperm or egg. When animal fat is burned dioxins are released and are carcinogenic. Some environmentalists are against incinerating medical waste. Greenpeace is an environmental activism group. Paraxial mesoderm is a tissue in animal embryos that surrounds the spinal cord. "An Inconvenient Truth" is a documentary about global warming by Al Gore. This poem refers to the Dilation and suction Curettage method of abortion, however it is titled Dilation and Extraction (partial-birth abortion). In D&E, force is needed to pull the baby apart. An instrument is used to seize a leg or other part of the body and then, with a twisting motion, tear it from the baby's body. The baby's spine is snapped and the skull crushed. In D&X, if the baby manages to slip out alive then he or she is legally protected and the doctor is not allowed to continue with the skull puncture/brain suction move.