The Cadaver
Unrecognizable, tattered
One leg intact, the other gone forever
Stringy tendons exposed, meat-like
Fingers motionless but my hands shaking
Gloves separate us
I shudder at the leathery texture of the skin, mustard yellow
Nothing like my own
Faceless, without an identity
Unable to interact, to touch me back
Once alive, connected
Now an empty vessel, a silent “teacher” of anatomy
A roadmap
Never breathing, never moving
Always mangled
Emotionless, unfeeling
Much like my own detachment and stoicism
I feel no pity, no loss
Maybe we're more alike than I thought.
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Author Bio: Andrea Goldstein is currently a freshman at Stanford University. She is hoping to major in Biology with a specialization in Neuroscience and has been fascinated by Science and the Medical field since age seven. She plans to pursue such fields in the future. You may contact her at: andkgoldATstanford.edu
Comment by Dr. Sandra Bertman, Distinguished Professor of Thanatology and Arts, National Center for Death Education Mount Ida College, Newton, MA.: " I wish I'd had this poem when putting together One Breath Apart: Facing Dissection. Ah, but she did touch you back. Profoundly, as your poem “The Cadaver” touches us. In Image and the Arc of Feeling, the Pulitzer Prize Winner Jorie Graham asserts that in poetry you have to feel deeply something inchoate, something which is coming up from a place you don’t even know the register of. What a brilliant illustration. Thank you."
