Brain Specimen

Brain Specimen

Lacy folds
wrinkle one upon the other
Each wrinkled fold
is called a gyrus
and each of us has
our own individual pattern
of these folds.
Sliced thin,
the light box makes this dense tissue
seem translucent and dry.
Alive it was fueled by one-fourth
of the body's oxygen-soaked blood
and full of ideas,
never at rest,
always keeping the body
nourished and working.
Always thinking and dreaming.
The cerebral ventricle
is the open part -
what did it hold in life?
This sliced piece looks like a face.
Is this brain's spirit
as beautiful as the brain?

 Marsha Salerno
 May 2008