WARREN BEATH

It was the most disgusting
of autopsies
We had ever worked on.
This remain
was spread on the chrome with its holes and gutters
the fluid was out.
The incisions were deft and clear.
The brain pulsed in our antiseptic gloves
it had never thought so clearly
smoothly
We worked in bisection
vertically to the spinal column
splayed the organs.
The worm was revealed
if worm it was
Parasitical anyways.
It was as tall as a man stretched out
or a child dismembered and separated in spaces
in pieces.
We knew what we were doing.
The worm spun in fluid and was still. We could hardly uncover its words
when it spoke. The mouth was
We could barely hear its words
the words were hard to hear
we could hardly decipher what it said
We took a tape measure
and its length was determined in centimeters.
This worm had lived and fed
and organized itself
wound around the brain stem
and its open mouth was closed on the globe
of the cerebellum.
The medulla was clean
the body healthy and well-nourished
As was the worm
parasitical.
The body is only host
it feeds and encases
a worm
in this case a large worm
long and well-formed.
It was the knot in the stomach and
the pain
You can’t see this worm
it hides in details.
It sees out the eyes and it controls the brain
through a series of contractions and
pressures exerted
on the emotions.
It will kill you.
It entered through the urethra
and thrived on fear
it wintered in the bones
poisoned the heart.
We cannot kill the worm.
It capitalizes
the worst of
the feelings of the
the blindness of the
deafness is a mercy.
It was there since birth maybe
It was the most disgusting of autopsies.