Peyton Cole

Induced Labor

Everyone is a fucking Napoleon.
-Ani DiFranco

The way I crush          pens under my feet sounds     like biting
into fresh cucumbers. They were       out
of ink any-      ways. My carpet is free

of new stains, so I force          myself to walk
to class. We learn        how easy it is to turn
our bodies       wrong. Almost like I was made          to be cut

into pieces. Our class stands     around
a white table with       a computer screen. We use virtual     cadavers
so we can escalate our invasion          without it staining

our hands. The instructor calls           her
Vicky. We feel better having a name
to assign to the organs            we drag

across the display. A video     simulation
plays. We watch Vicky give                birth to a son.
While the placenta follows we’re told

Vicky never had          a child. I think about all those            broken
pens and I’m glad       I don’t have     a medium
to echo            what I’d seen.

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Peyton Cole is a sophomore undergraduate student at Salisbury University. She has worked on and been featured in her school's literary magazine. She is a nursing major and creative writing minor, and she hopes to bring these two worlds together and show that they do not need to be separated, but can be blended together.