In An Office At The Movement Disorder Clinic While The Neurologist Experiments With Different Levels Of Voltage To Your New Implants, I Try To Assemble An Eight-Piece Plastic Puzzle Of The Human Brain

The stubby screws
in the cerebellum
poke out, exposed
to the cold
air. I have to leave
these parts to nestle
in the temporal
lobes, untethered
It’s the best I can do
which means I can’t
put the brain
back on its base
I have to leave
the puzzle upside
down on the counter
brain stem tilted
toward the doctor
who asks you again
to open and close
your left hand

Carol Graser’s work has been published or is forthcoming in many journals, including Apricity Magazine, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Evening Street Review, Hollins Critic, I-70 Review, The MacGuffin, Midwifery Today, So to Speak, Southern Poetry Review, and Home Planet News. Her collection, The Wild Twist of Their Stems, was published by FootHills Publishing in 2007. Since 2003, she’s run the monthly poetry series at the legendary Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY. She has performed her work at various events and venues around New York State.