Southbound

Here I am thinking about the boy in the drumline suit

While I imagine my mom hitting my head with a boot.

For I know that my education is important,

Yet my thoughts are enormous.

I do and I don’t want the boy in the drumline suit in my head;

You didn’t misread.

Though now I have a little brother 136 miles away,

Who awaits my returning

And wonders why one day am at his side

While he’s in the hospital at one in the morning.

For the next day at one in the morning I pack my bags

And am off to the station where the train lags.

He closes his eyes and turns his head

For he knows that I will turn around

And be headed southbound.

Now I am here sitting with doctors and graduate students

Seeming clueless and tearing up inside,

Feeling like a low tide,

Looking at them cells divide,

Am reminded that I am Biology.

These emotions process in my head

For now they have transformed

Into something for us all to see.