Poetry: “I Was Reading a Scientific Article” by Mark Hernberg
Mark Hernberg knows how to tug on the heartstrings. Literally. In his poem, “I Was Reading a Scientific Article,” he moves from the metaphor into the metaphysical in just a few lines, his speaker deftly illustrating to the reader the way that family may be bound by blood but they are also bound by something more ephemeral, painful, and complex. Hernberg doesn’t offer answers but he also doesn’t pull punches. The success of this poem rests on his ruthless delivery, his bombastic voice and the meticulous way he details each and every cellular twist of the knife and hopefully moves towards a place of catharsis—it’s not clear and maybe we like it this way.
I Was Reading A Scientific Article
how they can redeem dialysis waste
by mixing it into concrete,
adding shredded plastic tubes
once stained with blood
how they can redeem dialysis waste
by mixing it into concrete,
adding shredded plastic tubes
once stained with blood
to make our buildings stronger.
All these synthetic vessels
no longer doomed for incineration
as consequence for carrying our life.
If I rest my cheek against
this pillar’s smooth sternum,
I can hear the glacial beat
of its hidden heart.
Haven’t we always built
atop our own bodies’
sacrifices, or substituted others
and called them our own?
My mother explained this perfectly
by tearing herself apart
for fifty-three years, for
our every benefit, unspooling
her capillaries like loose threads
until she became hardened
concrete, impermeable.
The foundation of our family.
After she died
we burned everything
left of her.
Mark Hernberg
Mark Hernberg is a writer, recovering engineer, and stay at home dad currently living in Seattle, WA. He is currently an Editorial Assistant at Poetry Northwest. He recently completed his MFA in creative writing at the University of Montana, where he served as an editor for CutBank Literary Magazine.
