The Freezer Is the Microwave

By: Brett Stuckel

I don’t know if I’m different

because of damage to brain cells,

added-up hours of worry,

digestive stress from the lockdown of anti-nausea pills,

or shocking bills somehow shockingly paid,

because now I talk at work in cliches

because I have bigger fish to fry.

I don’t know if I’m different

than I would have been at forty and four months

if thirty-seven and six months hadn’t gifted

eighteen months of treatment

and ongoing three-month scans,

like the scan in three days

that might be different,

or might not be

different, leaving me

different

the same

for another three months.

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Brett Stuckel's work has appeared in Electric Literature, Wordgathering, Hobart, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and is online at @‌1kMarquis and www.brettstuckel.com.