Deficit

                by Lauren Stewart    



I answered after a few rings,
hesitating at the too-familiar number.
I still felt that shock at recognizing
my own voice, thinking that's what I
sound like, embarrassed.
I was disappointed to hear
that I haven't become my mother.
My voice, no longer raspy,
(I apparently shouldn't fear
the effects of pollution)
interrupted me with a bulletin
about the brownies I just made,
the antioxidants
and necessary reinforcements
found in bananas
that promote diversity
in the marginalized debate
between the right and the left lobe
demanding a production increase
when the infidels surge
through the exceptionally thin-walled alveoli.
After the energy crisis and blockages
in the system, the implications
of the soaring budget in the heart
are outweighed only by
the heavy casualties sustained
where the already exhausted troops
in the lung and liver divisions
expect a engagement every few hours.
The RBCs have been chased out, the enemy
has a significant number of tanks
in the arterial channels
and the capillaries have been looted.
Cells are in smoldering ruins.
We must rally the free world
in the defense of a free bloodstream,
for tissue to grow not under the
shadow of nuclear cancer.

I hung up when she
started talking
about drilling in
my lungs for new
oxygen reserves.