This morning the X-ray specialist told me  

to stand in front of a gray striped board  

to remove my shirt  

to hold my breath  

Okay, now breathe out  

I watched the laser light tremble  

red a streak of cherry ice  

Here’s your shirt  

Have a good one.  

The results are in:  

Astunted oak tree leans crookedly  

in starboard ship fashion  

ghostly pitched by waves  

I wrap my spine in a stump’s shell  

I would hear birds if I could bend  

past my waist but legacy has a cost  

and the burden is golden  

the dream of Domitian.  

I gave it my all and I see the stunted  

oak tree lightning bolt stinging gleam  

of a gilded hump  

Mama I tried my best but  

it’s not my fault that my wings came in crooked  

after I flew in bearing the bloodline  

on my two bleeding stumps.