Definitely

By Mary Jo Bang

What is desire

But the hardwire argument given

To the mind’s unstoppable mouth.

Inside the braincase, it’s I

Want that fills every blank. And then the hand

Reaches for the pleasure

The plastic snake offers. Someone says, Yes,

It will all be fine in some future soon.

Definitely. I’ve conjured a body

In the chair before me. Be yourself, I tell it.

Here memory makes you

Unchangeable: that shirt, those summer pants.

That beautiful face.

That tragic beautiful mind.

That mind’s ravenous mouth

That told you, This isn’t poison

At all but just what the machine needs. And then,

The mouth closes on its hunger.

The heart stops.

Copyright Credit: “Definitely” reprinted from Elegy by Mary Jo Bang. © 2007 by Mary Jo Bang. Used with permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Source: Elegy (Graywolf Press, 2007)