Ventral Pallidum

Vistors I never see
enjoy the darker rooms
take what they want
reptilian in their greed
and then, with a smirk
leave their footprints.

Pick me up, soda man
a misfire maybe, but those
lips I never felt
linger, and the smell of
incense drowns out the rest, the
din of my own thoughts
until I'm in love, and no
memory of the ways you brought me here.

Thalamus

This is not a dream,
he says. (He's
always the same,
letting you know what
already is.) But
maybe, maybe today
until tomorrow we all are
sleeping.

Medulla Oblongata

Mother, he said
every person
dies like this:
unwrapped, un-
lived,
left
as if

Only those
beats, steady,
long,
only that heart,
nothing else
gives
any man
thought, love, friendship,
as if.

Amygdala

And,my oh
my,
you've
got me
distracted
all worked up over the
little sweetness of
adrenaline.

Intraparietal Sulcus

I did
not want to see
the trees. My
attention flew
past,
and
really, where was the
inspiration?
everyone looks for
truth
and
love

Searching in
underbrush,
leaves, anything but those naked
cherry tress, still
unblossomed in winter,
swaying without the weight of spring.

Temporal lobe

The
elephant's first
memory is
peanuts, and
over and over that
rusted crunch, shell to shell
and
long snout over nuts.

Later, in
old age, only
bars
everywhere.

Striatum

Such elegance in
the lost
reason, and the
indifferent hands.
a man, no more
than a man alone,
undressed, re
made with L-dopa