21 June, 2023
What lives in the laboratory of the body
was cradled in someone’s hand
Look, they said and the thing
wet, translucent, glowing,
pulsed like the inside of a firefly
essential inner matter, vital, alive
in someone’s hand in a hallway
Mary Buchinger is the author of five collections of poetry, including Virology (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022), / klaʊdz / (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021), e i n f ü h l u n g/in feeling (Main Street Rag, 2018), Aerialist (Gold Wake, 2015), and Navigating the Reach (Salmon Poetry, forthcoming, 2023). Her work has appeared in AGNI, Boston Globe, DIAGRAM, Gargoyle, PANK, phoebe, Plume, Salamander, Salt Hill, Seneca Review, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, and elsewhere. She serves on the board of the New England Poetry Club and is professor of English and communication studies at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston. Website: www.marybuchinger.com.