"the lab"

something brief: from the heart

for i am the first

nay , the only of my kind allowed in this room.

oh , lush beacon of whiteness

grant me the polite claps of that beastly horde!

the sterile benediction of those who observe, but do not see

while we wait for my dissection to begin.

i am measured by the malady of my skin

my ancestors they bleed through these walls

and they are pressed flat against the glass

for i am the next great artifact to be scrubbed raw

built off the bones of my taxonomy

and i am the cleanest i have ever been and the most disappeared.

they flushed out that old smoke and song and filled me with their formaldehyde

and i am presented.

eloquence: presented

and a credit to her people!

safe enough to display but not to keep.

but in truth,

i did not know i had died

until they wheeled me out;

puppeteered to perform my own eulogy

to a room already moving

onto the next specimen.