It wasn’t sudden, the way one loses
car keys or misplaces the oregano
on the rack. It wasn’t there one day
and then gone. She first noticed it
loosening, a slight slackening
around the mouth, as she sketched
floor plans. She was young, then.
When he left her, she felt her eyes
go. Poring over the cadaver’s open
face one day in med school, she felt
one ear dip a bit lower than the other,
and so she took a job drawing blood.
One night, she startled a patient.
When she paused in front of the mirror,
she discovered her right eyebrow
hovering halfway to her hairline.
She moved to another state
and got a shrink. In the waiting room,
a commendation for work with 9/11
veterans hung. She took the pills
and got up early. This is when
the cartilage in her nose softened
and she began walking on the sea floor.
A porpoise swam away with her lips.
She had no way of asking for them back.