Testing Time (Mri) Poem by A.E.J. Jordan

Testing room
Testing time
See my breathe
Testing voice
Says testing time

Stiff as a board
Hold my breathe
Count to ten
Small testing space
Another test
Just one more time

With my mind
Think far away
No stabbing pain
I’ll go insane

Just 40 minutes
To suffocate
The clock is broken
I’m forced to wait

Vibrating noise
Pierces my ears
Headphones are on
Beethoven breaths
He breaths inside
Instead of me

F-ing hurts
To lay so still
Hard as stone
Breaking bones
Just a test
Won’t prove a thing

Big machine
Worth a lot
Sees through me
A ghost to be
Not anything

Spinal lines
All shadowed grays
Discs and bones
All worn away

Shiny sheets
A slippery stack
Films inside
This skin of mine
Parts and pieces
That can’t be me

I am not that
It’s something else
No one I know
Or wish to meet

I recognize
It’s from a film
A film of me
I’ve never seen

The title’s lost
Inside my head
I can’t remember
The actor’s dead

Gave up on life
Gave up you see
I understand
So perfectly

The testing voice
Says testing time
Is over you see
And so am I

Closing the door
I say goodbye
For one last time
To testing time