Julie Wong
DESENSITIZATION AS FAILED REFLECTIVE PAIN EXPERIMENT
i am still
waiting for the ice
to refract upon my hand,
but the pain has solidified
around its own absence, prism
of elbow freezing action potentials
along the length of my ulna. my nerves
have been numbed into reflex, and if i cannot be
certain, i will at least be light, floating and fracturing
on the fractaled surface. i choose wave or particle or liquid
crystal as my arm sapphires, glinting in the plastic bin. the cost
of another dazzling casualty is nothing, so long as you can see yourself
in the water’s rippling looking glass and forget
it’s supposed to hurt.
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