What happens when the body is not the body you expected or desired,
What happens as a parent when the body that comes from you
or out of you is not what you expected.
What happens when that body never feels comfortable
in the world. What happens when that body wants to
leave the world by force. What happens when your dreams
for that body that came out of your body what happens when
those dreams disappear
What happens when our bodies are no longer active,
no longer in service, no longer in active service.
What happens when your body is no longer seen, disappears completely
What happens when your body is no longer reacted to
What happens when your body is no longer able
What happens when your able body is no longer regarded
What happens when your disabled body is no longer regarded
What happens when your body is no longer regarded
What happens to visibility
What happens when we are dead
What happens when we are dead from the body up
What happens when we are alive from the head up
What happens to the rest of the body
What happens to the rest of the body
What happens to the rest of the body
What happens to the rest of the body
{To read the rest of this piece, please purchase Issue 39.1.}
Katie Jean Shinkle is the author of one novel, Our Prayers After the Fire (Blue Square Press, forthcoming) and three chapbooks, most recently Baby-Doll Under Ice (Hyacinth Girl Press, forthcoming). She is a doctoral candidate in creative writing at the University of Denver.
