Brain
A self-evolving creature
Repairing, commanding,
Reconnecting, reshaping
To accommodate our traumas, our lives, our interests
Enabler of life.
Keystone to the arch
A brain, is a brain, is a brain.
But ours we say,
Is proportionally larger in size and worth
So we slaughter all the rest
We murder and master
And when we can’t,
We move onto fake battle turf
Our heads hit sportful projectiles,
Bodies launch-punch into ground.
A soft, membranous butter floating in fluid,
Jiggle, smash, breaking like silky tofu.
When we kill ourselves with guns,
We shoot the brain:
Emotion and reason
Creativity and logic
Sensitive and ruthless.
It fits humbly in our two palms
Cut off from the bloodstream
Sheltered from toxic chemicals of the external world
—but it rests on incision-making bones
Our Anthem
This one's for bellicose fathers and glitching mothers
All the cribriform scars we’ve absorbed on our hearts
We’re healers\healing, but like shoelaces
When we're not paying attention we come undone.
We’re collectors
Stock diagnoses like pocketed Pokémon
Flashbacks-worries-and-the-blues they’re
Prepackaged without confetti or sprinkles
We’re rovers,
Our boots stuck in unreal realism
Where’s the erased story of Cinderella?
Her father’s hands weren’t washed
Listen to Matilda’s
We can begin again,
Corral ourselves into the sanctuary of
Selected family.
Collage on Joy
House smells smokey from the last time I set the microwave on fire
We color white hair with sharpies
Toast our british scones to a joyful disappointing year
Paynes-grey under my fingernails on the bus ride home
I practice G cords on his thigh
Untangle poems from my brain
Kissing me when I say my lips are sticky with sweet batter
To fall asleep I count the things I do not know
Minna Wybrecht
Minna graduated from the University of Michigan in 2019 with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Literature. She is currently a medical student at Michigan.