Of all the things to want and never–

death, a cardboard box of pity and riches,
crosses the ocean in a FedEx plane
from a foreign world for you.

It’s the thinning–
no one disbelieves
your supposed withering.

With skull under scalpel,
tell me your scars.

That’s where the recovery begins.

 

(originally published in Viewfinder Literary Magazine, Summer 2016)