Burn<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His face so terrible in the bus window\u2019s reflection,
\nyou cannot turn away.
\nYou did not know when you sat down
\nhe would look at you as though to see
\nwhat flesh you are made of. He does not speak;
\nthat hideous maceration of eschar,
\ncrocodile scales, lipless mouth, lashless eyes
\nthat burn like coals into your face. Outside
\nthe snowstorm howls as the bus coasts down Avenue Cotes Des Neiges.
\nAt night you\u2019re drenched by monstrous dreams
\nof icthyosis and thick-lipped crackling flesh. In the mirror
\nyou stare at the fuzz on your twelve year old cheeks,
\nimagine the skin shrinking
\ninto a shriveled mask across your face\u2019s
\nbird-bone precision.
\nIn the morning on the bus he is there again,
\nand again you sit beside him.
\nFor a week you do this impossible thing, until,
\non the seventh day when the air is clear,
\nwhen he turns to you and grasps your hand,
\nand you see underneath,
\nsomething grotesquely beautiful. And he asks your name.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Arthur Ginsberg<\/a> is a neurologist and poet based in Seattle. He was born and grew up in Montreal, Canada, and attended undergraduate and medical school at McGill University followed by internship and residencies in the United States. He has studied poetry at the University of Washington and at Squaw Valley Community of Writers with Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds and Lucille Clifton. Recent work appears in the anthologies, Blood and Bone, <\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and Primary Care,<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>from University of Iowa Press,\u00a0and Beyond Forgetting, <\/a><\/em>from Kansas State University Press. He was awarded the William Stafford prize in 2003\u00a0in Washington State by the renowned poet, Madeline DeFrees. He received the Humanities Award from the American Academy\u00a0of Neurology in 2009, and serves as a reviewer for the poetry section, Reflections, in the journal, Neurology<\/em> that is distributed worldwide to thirty thousand neurologists. His chapbook, Faith is the Next Breath,<\/a><\/em> was\u00a0released by Puddinghouse Press in Ohio. His full length manuscript, The Anatomist,<\/em> has been accepted for publication by David Roberts Books, and another chapbook, Crossing Over,<\/em> will be published by Winterhawk Press.\u00a0Ginsberg was awarded an MFA degree in creative writing in July 2010 from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon where he studied with Dorianne Laux, Marvin Bell and David St. John.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Burn His face so terrible in the bus window\u2019s reflection, you cannot turn away. You did not know when you sat down he would look at you as though to see what flesh you are made of. He does … Continue reading