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.


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.
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