Of All the Machines (Imposed by Doctors

Thomas Quitzau

April 1, 2021

Of all the machines imposed by Doctors

One’s imagery puts all poets to shame.

Meet the MRI’s! X-Ray’s pro-proctors

And ultrasound? Comparatively tame. 

So imposing! The steel behemoth tombs’ 

Loud clacking magnets whir & tug at thought:

But deep within, beyond matter and wombs

Dwell souls that can neither be tamed nor bought

Nor located by radiation’s beams

Lasers unseen ‘til particles they strike

Our bodies reduced to visions, it seems

Until there’s nothing human left to like

        Try as they might pursue us after death

        Heaven’s no place for monsters of such breadth.

Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.