header

Home
About the author
Book / Readings

The poems

Made by Teresa Marrin
© 2010-2012

full post

She had to unzip the black body bag
To check
Yes … "full post" — complete autopsy
To find out why you died
Even though we all knew
That's my baby there, I said
You can analyze all the blood samples you want
And sift through all those meds
An inhuman amount of meds
For a 29-year-old
Doled out by doctors
Who didn't see alcoholism
As a legitimate disorder
Just an annoyance
Here, take this
Oh, woops, forgot about
That mental illness thing
We know why you died
You died, literally
Of a broken heart
Years of struggling, pain
Rallying and relapse
They may know what was in your blood
But they don't know what was in your heart
They'll never know
They can open up your skin
But they can't get inside it
There's no tool or procedure for that
That takes love and endurance
Devotion and history — a lot of history

I had a full post too …
Cut right down to the bone
My organs taken out
And put back in a little plastic bag
And there are some days I can tell you
I'm not sure if I'm put back together anymore …