Physiology of the Blood

Blood cells are born 
in the marrow. They flood 
the columns of the pelvis, 
the ladders of the spine, the bones 
armoring the breast and its collection 
of soft organs. Somewhere in the factory,
a lever or switch flips the numbers,
electrifies the circuitry, multiplies. 
One day you're born or wake 
with too many lunettes; unchecked, 
they'd proliferate so skin bruises easy, 
as if a crimson dew formed beneath 
its outer walls. I don't know how
to keep you from this delirium 
that seethes within, mostly
unseen. In early morning light,
I scan your body for tell-
tale marks, watch as breath 
curls around the curve of your throat: 
in the shape of a stone fruit, in the guise 
of a hive clotted thick with syrup. Aspirate, 
from aspiratio: an exhalation. How a mouth 
forms the sound of audible breath,
the low hum of a quiet engine.

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