'Cysticercosis' by Daphna El-Roy

the only thing that's ever supposed to be wrong with your 23-year-old head
is what you do to it
like the snorty-looking powder on a plastic cover in my brother's room
[cornstarch really but looks like it could be what other brothers do]
tired, funny vision? you pay for what you do

but all you did was go somewhere by yourself
and come back with plans and something in your head you didn't know was there
and much later fall at work and dad was mad at first because you are just fine who needs an ambulance
and then the doctor said malformed artery and they'd have to operate
talking to you and not mom and dad who are right there in the room because he knows you are an adult though you are really my baby brother
he says as he lectures neutrally and informatively with an occasional smile
that it may be a tumor probably not malignant but they'd have to operate
and then the doctor says maybe a parasite's in there

dies, calcifies and puts pressure on your brain

You show your x-rays in your intro Psych class when the topic was brain
of course as we will at home, we come up with all kinds of things like your x-rays version of Where's Waldo

17 staples on the length of the soft back of your head
pulpy head-crease squeezed
a costume unseasonably taken too far

 

Daphna El-Roy: Daphna El-Roy welcomes you to her planet.

'Cysticercosis' originally appeared in Poor Mojo's Almanac(k)