A NOTE IN BYPASSING

Inserted into the complicated world of arteries,
A simple detour--drawn from the leg.
Cleaving to a wall here and there...
A stitch in time saves nine...
Forestalling the sealing of the play.

Working overtime.
Building up corpuscles
Sustaining life in veins and arteries for the red multitude.
Small clots of four draining energy and smiles.
Veins full of semi-solid cellular blocks.

The doctors stop the lungs which were
Breathing rapidly on their own--
The heart is stalled in time,
A machine takes up the slack
Of the new resting organs.

Holding the knife about the stilled breast, inward it plunges.
Exposing the innermost part to

Sterile lights
And curious eyes.

Chilled now by the winter air.
The unexposed heart pulsates under the old battle wound.
A new seam compliments the leg,
In a wavering fashion.

The heart bridged by leg's arteries.
Beats double-time, faster and faster...
As if trying to make up for lost time.