Noah Stetzer is a graduate of The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and also a scholarship recipient from the Lambda Literary Retreat for Emerging LGBT Writers & from the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. Born & raised in Pittsburgh PA, he currently lives in the Washington DC metro area.
From Because I Can See Needing a Knife
Law of the Conservation of Mass
An infection seethes in my lungs, a soup
inside of burnt stars and twisted moon rock
pulverized to dust and shaped into wet
strings of virus—a comet sputters out.
Planets dissolve; my lungs fill with sick. Stars,
outside and up, expand and burst to life:
my T-cells drop, wink out.
Lights flat and bright, doctors shove tubes
between my ribs. I howl and breathe
again, my lungs—dry sponges set
in water bowls—blossom in my chest.
Cool oxygen races, deep red blood flushes
my face and lips: I unfold, origami
returning to fresh paper. I am sheets
pressed and windows cleaned.
The sun slightly shrinks.
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