The
Luminous Mysteries
by Michelle Brooks
by Michelle Brooks
For
the better part of an hour, I sit
in
an examination room, my nose
dripping
onto the butcher paper,
having
feigned interest in the fake
breast
handed to me by a doctor
at
this urgent care. I had only hoped
for
a quick shot of antibiotics to make
me
well once more. After the door
shuts,
I drape my red coat over my legs,
the
coat I bought at a thrift store in Grosse
Pointe,
only a few miles from this decimated
city
I loved upon first sight. The doctor
instructed
me to practice on this model
until
he returned with a script. He takes
my
word for my condition, and grabs the breast
from
my hand, telling me a girl can never be
too
careful, and self-exams are the first line
of
defense. Don’t ask me how I ended up
here.
I’ve never been good at directions.
Michelle
Brooks has
published a collection of poetry, Make
Yourself Small, (Backwaters
Press), and a novella, Dead
Girl, Live Boy,
(Storylandia Press). She says she spent
a summer in Gary with a now ex- boyfriend. She says she loves Gary,
even as the boyfriend did not fare as well. A
native Texan, she has spent much of her adult life in Detroit.