by Lindsay Clark

CW: Themes of child illness and loss.

Yes, a liver can say
no, too. I have carefully
considered your lymph.
The skin can yellow like
a neglected manuscript. No,
baby, it isn’t your T-cells.
It’s mine. Rejection can be
acute revelation. No, I cannot be
trapped in one body all the time.
It can be reasoned with. Or
it can fester chronically. Manifest
in midlife. Bile ducts caved in
like an ill-tended tunnel
system. Irreparable. The hollow
of a sternum can chug
the marrow whole only
to spit it out like Napa
Valley wine. No, no, not
this one. Not this child.

Lindsay Clark lives in California with her family.