“Hospital officials say they go to great lengths to make sure a donor is dead. Before a heart is taken for a transplant, the donor must have had no brain waves for at least 24 hours, no reflexes, no breathing, no muscular activity and be certified dead by a team of doctors not connected with the operation.
“The heart is kept alive with a respirator, which forces air into the lungs and keeps blood flowing through the dead body.” [From an article in the Washington Post of August 4, 1968.]
This is a different dark.
The ocean is on a plate.
I want to dance,
Said the live heart in the dead body.
I throw blood
Like a rainbird.
What for?
How long?
Later I might dream.
Mountains the color of knives. Lichen.
When can I dance?
Said the live heart in the dead body.
I want to hear
Something else.
Love is slow to start,
Like a clock.
Ask me what I know.
I have too much room.
When can I dance?
Said the live heart in the dead body.
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