"This is the heart of a woman with health to burn, "

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T. Dunn recommends these on line literary sites.

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Contact
Ms. Dunn

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T. Dunn reads "Metronome"with music by Doug DuCap in Real Audio

T. Dunn

Metronome

My doctor worked my heart
in a mansion of his wife's design.
Shirtless, the face of a ghost,
I am resting in a chair too formal
for this use. Jelly softens
the contact of sublime electrodes,
my goosebumped skin.


The walls are marble. Needles
scratch their verdict on player
piano reels of rolling paper.
Books older than my grandmother
line the walls, interspersed with
diplomas, heavy models of the heart.


Here is the heart, ladies and gentlemen:
cast in thick lurid plastic, halved
and quartered for your perusal,
and taped for your listening pleasure.
(Just press this button here).


"This is a heart of a fifty-year old
smoker who is with us no more.
This is the heart of a child
with calliope lungs--
an interesting case. This is
the heart of a woman with
health to burn, presented
for comparison."


These X-rays are my most
recent photographs and I
did not have to smile or dress.

And I am well. I am well. I am well.





On Hearing Yet Signing

Fingers fit to speak what words cannot:


My "stop", a rough salute,
hints of abruptness and restraint,
a willfulness to pause.


Described with levered, flat--
palmed hands, opening as after
prayer: the book, my favorite form of
gluttony, a hinged lotus bowl of hands.


Awkwardly making devil's horns,
a hearing gesture, I now love without
reason, a brujo shaping charms.