Typewriter Series #2688 by Tyler Knott GregsonRead an article...



Typewriter Series #2688 by Tyler Knott Gregson

Read an article this morning, scientists
unable to study pain, the headline read.
Too subjective, too much flux in how it was
reported.  On a scale of 1 to 10,
how much does this hurt?  One patient’s
6 is another’s 2, the opposite
so very often true.  
Instead they test reactions, instinctual
and born in, add some heat to a paw
watch how quickly the animal yanks it away,
this is as close to understanding,
they say, as close as we’ll come.

A baseline, they say they’re after,
but there’s a rub, once injured,
that reaction quickens, that baseline
drops.  Less heat but more pain.

Tell me this then, white lab coats
and hypotheses spinning like spider’s
silk:  How, after all those years of burning,
all that fire on the soft skin
of my palms, did I refuse
to pull away?

-Tyler Knott Gregson-

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Published on August 06, 2019 19:16
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