In Which I Learn the Beauty of a Scan
This is my brain on holiday – it’s June,
Bird Island – there’s the little runway where
we landed on the left, the golden rim
of coves and beaches where we lie all day
and never see a soul – just birds high up
that wheel and grown into a thunder cloud
as dark and choppy as the sea – and there
right in the middle is the restaurant
with woods on either side, the tables laid
with fish and fruit, a waiter serving drinks.
My brain looks happy on its holiday,
the pickled walnut shape has lost its edge,
when doctors touch my head I feel my brain
relaxing into every crevice of the skull
as though it’s shucking off its canvas shoes
and going for a walk along the beach –
my love, I see it turning red as snapper,
I hear it humming to itself like birds
released into the sky and dizzy from
the sunshine beating on their feather-heads.
My brain is thinking that it would be nice
to stay here on sabbatical, a book
of poems in its hand, and call itself
Crusoe or Man Friday, and go fishing
for snapper in the afternoon or meet
up with your brain for an ice-cold beer,
no messages to read or send, no nerves
to calm or complex thoughts to organise –
my brain might never make it back to me,
just send a postcard wishing I was there.
Page(s) 40
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