Lungs

One is not enough the genes decree. Utterly

dependent on the diaphragm. Their job to gobble

up the unseen molecules of oxygen that waft their

way to alveoli where they sieve through a wall

that opens Sesame. And too, their job to harvest

from the blood the gassy poison that would

anesthetize the brain were it to fester in the salty

plasma stew. Almost light as air. More than the

heart, the altar for the breath of life but cannot

flaunt their role—they load the hemoglobin cars

that would stand stock still, the cells would starve,

without the pump.

Skin

Largest organ of them all yet only millimeters thick

—or thin, depending on the site or state of mind.

Water cannot penetrate but sunlight can, at least

enough to make the vitamin that gets the calcium

into the bone. And then there’s melanin—

polymerized oxidized tyrosine—three different

kinds—that give it color. How much better were

there none or only one. No Civil War. No, better

one, not none—for without it we’d burn too easily,

die early melanoma deaths. And then there’s all

its buried nerves, everywhere, but teeming in the

fingers, face. The feel of a kiss.

Kidneys

Stuck down below heart and lungs and brain,

stuck behind (you bang your back, the ache you

feel is them) ,relegated to the slimy job of

cleaning up the place. They monitor and

regulated the water level diligently—no sleep at

night. Hard wired to the white and gray inside the

skull but in a pinch can do their job alone.

Unbeknownst to most they spew out juice that

jolts the bone to make more cells to carry oxygen.

Found out last fifty years you can make it if they

die but only if you tie yourself to sterile catheters.

AV-Node

Guard of the gate leading to the ventricles. On

duty day and night, she never sleeps. Her job to

let enough but not too many charges through. If

drugged or old sometimes the gate slams shut.

And then some days she loses count, the hoards

race in. Beat too slow or beat too fast may be too

bad. She worries when the traffic’s slow (no fault

of hers) or when the road takes another route,

bypasses her. Big trouble when she goes berserk,

births charges of her own, spews them out rapid

fire. She must be stopped, but never fired.