Boy's Heart is on the Outside of his Body
by Michael A. Arnzen
Freakcidents (2005)
It beats there in the aluminum case strapped on his chest. He can feel the wet sides muscles lubed with blood slapping against the cold metal as he walks to school a tinny sound like kids sitting on used car hoods, or pressure-dented gascans. He carries his heart like a backwards rucksack full of books; a bad shoulder strap that keeps slipping, unhitching, and he has to keep propping it back up awkwardly, hoping no one's looking. He can never wear white due to leakage, and they call him Tin Man and he wishes it was only rust that causes that unbearable squeak whenever he moves. He gets special treatment at the metal detectors, allowed to cut the line to enter the school building silently and that's good because today he's gonna make them all wish they were born with steel hearts, with parts anywhere but inside, where metal punctures and bleeds.
--Excerpt from Freakcidents (Shocklines Press, 2005). Previously appeared in Paratabloids (Ozark Triangle Press, 2000).
