Markie Babbott

COLONOSCOPY REVERIE

you are not asleep but you are not awake
you will feel calm despite this non ordinary situation

count backwards into not sleep
your abdomen will be manipulated

we tell you this in case your body remembers
in any case you must have a ride home

we tell you the results upon your awakening from not sleep
we will feed you buttered toast

your choice of apple juice or ginger ale
you always have the choice

to be asleep or awake says Rumi
you will forget the ale and frat din

but not how they tickled your belly
like a flipped tortoise

rocking on its back
legs pawing the air

Markie Babbott's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the Aurorean, CAIRN, Calyx:A Journal of Art and Literature By Women, literary mama, Mannequin Envy, Perigee: Publication for the Arts, Women.Period, (Spinsters Ink, 2008), The Women's Times: Pioneer Valley and Tupelo Press Poetry Project (12/09). Her chapbook, Sus Scrofa, won the 2008 Poets Corner Press. She lives and works in western Massachusetts.