What Rough Beast | Poem for May 13, 2019

Erin Lynn Marsh
The immortal jellyfish can transform

itself from an adult into a baby over and over
again—though only as an emergency measure.

Its cells are completely altered: muscle cells become
nerve cells, sperm, an egg. I draw two columns in my notebook—

the first is a list of body parts, while the second lists
types of emergencies: heart attack, broken bones,

house fire, falling through lake ice, a dead relative, etc.
I match items from each list using a Sharpie, mapping

my escape from this faulty body. A fall down the stairs
gets me a new hip; nearly drowning in the Atlantic

guarantees me a healthy heart. As a teenager, I would cut
my arms with a wood-handled knife and expect

to be transformed. Now I know it takes a commitment
to serious bodily harm—a willingness

to endure bone-aching pain.

Erin Lynn Marsh is the author of the poetry collection Disability Isn’t Sexy (Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications, 2019). Her poems have appeared in Post Road Magazine, Sugar House Review, Paper Darts, Emrys Journal, and the anthology Hers: Poets Speak (while we still can), Vol. 2 (Beatlick Press and Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications, 2017), edited by Jules Nyquist. She lives and works in Bemidji, MN.

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