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.