The Sand Hill Review               http://www.sandhillreview.org 2009

Little Diplomats

Breathe into the pain says my masseuse

as though I could send a small lobe of lung

like a rescue boat

sailing down past the cave of ribs

to deliver aid to the twanging

muscle in my lower back.

If only I could dispatch bits of organs

on missions around my body —

a fiber of heart muscle

to unfist a hand,

my rowdy tongue

chaperoned by a bit of brain.

What a corps they’d be

these tiny ambassadors

roaming the realm,

clever, humble, swift.

Pat Zylius