Friday, September 24, 2021

Laboratory

a room of large tables, shelves of bottles

the glass brown or clear, the contents liquid

some are tombs for bodies, for body parts


what I learn is the smell of formaldehyde

the look & feel of a glass pipette, a pointed tip

submerged in a beaker of distilled water


“it’s like a straw,” my grandfather says

“draw the liquid up beyond this mark”

an etched number next to an etched line


“then stopper the pipette with the tip of

your index finger, tap to release drop

by drop until the liquid level meets the mark”


this practice, this exactitude, lifelong


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