by Audrey T. Carroll

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An agent of change
Think: mutation
Think: chaos

Mitosis is a splitting, copying
two parts, codes mimicked
but not always right

Complications are messy

A body that doesn’t know
how to behave, how to be
like other bodies, how to replicate
the self to perfection—these errors
can become hereditary

One split into two sounds
easy enough, a line
down the middle binding
the sides: to each their own,
both alike, unless variation
rewrites the narrative of cells

What might a group of unruly
body codes be called? A mismatch
of humanity? An order of chaos?
An imperfection of humours? A chronicle
of defect? A pity of circumstance?

Hearts and minds mutate so slowly
as to be impossible to notice, so quick
to anger, to judgment, to snapping

Split into two equal parts, but it doesn’t feel
equal, one a mess of homage to the other

How often does the variation live? How often
is the world equal? A norm from which to deviate:
a narrative that sells

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© Audrey T. Carroll

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Audrey T. Carroll (she/her) is the author of the What Blooms in the Dark (ELJ Editions, 2024) and Parts of Speech: A Disabled Dictionary (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her writing has appeared in Lost Balloon, CRAFT, JMWW, Bending Genres, and others. She is a bi/queer and disabled/chronically ill writer. She serves as a Diversity & Inclusion Editor for the Journal of Creative Writing Studies, and as a Fiction Editor for Chaotic Merge Magazine.

Find her on her website and @AudreyTCarroll on Twitter/Instagram.

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