Gadolinium
A liver cell may stray
replicate a liver
in the lung. Am I alive
in this confection
called cancer
I am a liver
*
Gadolinium may stay
several months
or years in the body
an unwanted house
guest, gadfly
*
Is a silvery white metal
when oxidation is
removed
frosted shingles downhill
along 41st Terrace
smoke following
the wind falls
from the chimney cap
*
The killer flays skin into angel wings
and suspends them using
fishing wire
His victims guard him
while he sleeps
*
Socrates imbibed the hemlock
they prescribed him
I premedicate for another scan
high contrast
*
Yellow vomit on the motel
room alarm clock
reveals the killer has the same
brain tumor I do
Kansas City Zoo
Terra Cotta Warrior Replicas
donated
one of the largest lion prides
in N. American Zoos
*
How many brushes
with death
does it take
to complete a portrait
of rose bushes
*
Jimmy the Chimp
dies in cage
age 41
Lorikeet exhibit dedicated
Polar Bear Passage
breaks ground
*
Mashed scrota
of mandarin orange slices
my year-old
presses from mouth
to the pouch
of her rubber bib
*
Berlin paces a narrow strip
of plate glass
upon her sign greenhouse gases
zigzag an alpine
switchback
her shrinking ice
cap caught in the act
of vanishing
*
Snowmelt morning
another MRI
my three-year-old
lets me in
the back deck sliding glass
iced boards a stack
of cards
a deck stacked against me
my survivability
Cameron Morse lives with his wife Lili and two children in Independence, Missouri. His poems have been published in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Bridge Eight, Portland Review and South Dakota Review. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Far Other (Woodley Press, 2020). He holds and MFA from the University of Kansas City—Missouri and serves as Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review and Poetry editor at Harbor Editions. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.
The Collidescope 