Shiragami
Donny Winter
from Feats of Alchemy, Alien Buddha Press, 2021
The lab’s been vacant for years now,
but some nights, I wonder if the alchemist
responsible for my life preserved
my soul in roses, or perhaps,
placed my spirit in a beast’s sternum
because flowers never last
in the hands of humans.
Perhaps, my rebirth was the vision
of a desperate man clinging
to the life I lived long ago,
the fever dream of extending
existence past its expiration,
a defiance of decay and the natural spin
of this torpid world.
In all reality, my body was likely the obsession
of a mad scientist, a grief-stricken father
aiming to make the world’s eighth wonder,
to preserve my biotic history in these hyper-active
cells: dividing and regenerating,
never knowing that I’ve become the titan he feared,
existence incarnate, a world wonder warped into wrath.
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