Tuesday, February 28, 2012

G. E. Schwartz/ENGINE OF LIFE, FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, 1965

I walked through The Engine of Life, the giant

walk-through heart, through its blood-pulsed places,

seeking the path, exploring valves, following the current

of my classmates. Touching walls, cardiac muscle was touched,

as were raised arteries clammier than my palms. My

feet shuffled through two chambers, feeling the fibre-glass

contours unyeilding through my thin soles. In near dark

I moved from venticle to ventricle, near deaf, thrilled

with pounding. All around the enormous heartbeat,

sensed, artificial, larger than all life, relentless. Just

there my heart was as small as a sparrow's, its living

compartments ready to seize in silence. Emerging,

my mouth gaped in wonder, knowing--just then--

where I was in this world, one untold millions have

since passed through.

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