In pushing each of the existing prefatory phrases or acronyms up the stanzaic chain the poem assumes a much more symmetrical shape. It also becomes decidedly more conventional in that the opacity so central to its purposes is replaced by an argumentative logic and linearity that, to the author, would surely be anathema. That said, this exercise, I believe, is useful in as much as it illuminates the kinds of normative practices, in both poetry and medicine, Zilm seems determined to both revise and undermine.
Here’s the poem as it appears in Waiting Room:
DIAGNOSES
Your autobiography, on tinfoil,
in aquamarine ink. Diagnosis subtle.
Answer this multiple-choice question:
Do you grab objects from other people?
ADD: Does your brain loop pictures
of your mouth kissing the mouth of a lanky Arab
cab driver and do you run your palms over door knobs
eight times and wash your palms with bleach & sunlight?
OCD: Do you lose your edges and
the boundaries between your body
and another body and the pavement
and the deep blue sea?
BORDERLINE: (Axis II). Historians say
Orpheus was Borderline with ocd features—
that’s why he couldn’t stop turning around.
Lot’s wife too—
SALINITY: a side effect of the some
of the best medications. Also
SKIN RASH: only on the inside
of your hands. But still the medication is a
MIRACLE: its touch is jellyfish/devilfish
velvet walking the shine of your brain
YOUR HEART: its polished surface.
CLEAN. |
|
Here’s how it appears with the terms reassigned:
DIAGNOSES
ADD: Your autobiography, on tinfoil,
in aquamarine ink. Diagnosis subtle.
Answer this multiple-choice question:
Do you grab objects from other people?
OCD: Does your brain loop pictures
of your mouth kissing the mouth of a lanky Arab
cab driver and do you run your palms over door knobs
eight times and wash your palms with bleach & sunlight?
BORDERLINE: (Axis II). Do you lose your edges and
the boundaries between your body
and another body and the pavement
and the deep blue sea?
SALINITY: Historians say
Orpheus was Borderline with ocd features—
that’s why he couldn’t stop turning around.
Lot’s wife too—
SKIN RASH: a side effect of the some
of the best medications. Also
MIRACLE: only on the inside
of your hands. But still the medication is [a]
YOUR HEART: its touch is jellyfish/devilfish
velvet walking the shine of your brain
CLEAN: its polished surface. |
+
[Distillate © HA&L + Phillip Crymble {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]