The Other Side of Mind
Even as you’re trying to decide where to break this line
I’m right here
guiding this morning’s coffee
down the twisting tubes
of your long digestive tract.
Even as you’re still working on the title
I’m blinking your two eyes
keeping them always watered
even as you gaze into your screen
with furrowed brow and scrunched up face.
Even in meditation counting breaths
here I am again
actually making you breathe
so you can indulge your front lobe fantasy
of total loss of self.
Even later when you go out there
reading this aloud
before a room full of neocortex thinkers
wildly looking at watches and rustling in chairs
and otherwise trying to understand what’s going on
there I’ll be with all the other silent brains
working to keep everyone
at a steady 37 centigrade degrees.
And even now as you wonder
how this poem will be received
and wondering if you’ll get it published
and dare say dreaming of a possible Pushcart
here I am as always
ready to give your lower abdomen
a little squeeze
just to let you know it’s time to pee.
Henry Crawford is the author of two collections of poetry, American Software (CW Books, 2017), and the Binary Planet (Word Works, 2020). A third collection, Screens, is forthcoming from Broadstone Books. His poem, The Fruits of Famine, won first prize in the 2019 World Food Poetry Competition. His work has been published in Boulevard, Copper Nickel, Rattle, the Southern Humanities Review, and many others. He Writes on Substack at https://everydaypoet.substack.com/. He serves as co-host for the Café Muse online poetry series produced by The Word Works.
Image: Nancy Anburaj, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
