decompressive craniectomy on video

first, frontal alabaster
white smooth tainted
coagulate blood

            then, forceps return the flap
of skin where it belongs revealing
                                                            he is a handsome man.

the surgeon peels the flap
down again    optic nerve tugged
            as a loose tooth held by the root


i am disgusted,                though replaying the third time
exposed raw temples pulsating at me

the man is man again—then he is stone
            only forceps and a face away
from unrecognizable—or

                        i have seen his temples beating like mine

                        i know blood
and skull more than name
i recognize his bareness.         how humbling

to connect through left temple, surgeon’s marker, open head.

Cait Johnson is an MFA candidate at University of California, Riverside. Cait is an editor and member at Art of Nothing Press, a Southern California indie publication and local art collective. When not writing or in school, they spend the rest of their day working in accounting and studying astrology.