Travesty

A snowy morning \ quiet afternoon \ I layer my fevered body with light jackets \ plant my

numb feet in firm brown boots \ and wrap my head in a checkered tan scarf \ just enough

so I could see \ very much like a shemagh \ confident that I would not be tagged \ a suspect

citizen this time around \ and by having already hurled \ some two-feet snow \ I had marked

the last quarter of lot \ that needed to be shoveled away \ before stepping out again \ in the

chosen garb \ to throw the ice scraper in-pocket \ onto the shoveled snow \ and drop my

head in labor \ for the next two arid hours \ when blood stirs intensely \ with every deep

forward bend \ and quick little jerk up \ removing every layer of warmth \ except for the

porous scarf \ and leaving too a stirring \ that last awarded me with a gushing bloody nose

\ and forced me into squandered hours of rest \ but in this instance graciously blankets \ my

sporadic shivering \ until the shovel carrying capacity momentum \ cuts into an icy square-

foot of snow \ and further aggravates my crumbling shoulders \ yet not stopping me \ from

gluing my eyes to the shovel at-hand \ and barricade before me \ as the foretold end arrived

\ unhurried but incomplete \ for with the scarf around my head \ I could marvel at my

silhouette \ painted to endure merely two weeks \ when the buried ice scraper will reappear

\ and I will inevitably remove my scarf.

Cherubin Manokaran is a Research Technician at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In addition to his strong fascination with cancer biology, he is passionate about poetry and creative writing. Cherubin truly enjoys expressing his thoughts through these mediums and looks forward to continuing to expand upon and hone his poetic expression and form. As a reader, he greatly admires the work of authors W. G. Sebald, Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole and Joseph O’Neill, all of whom have utilized “stream of consciousness” in their writing.