Close Reading

Poof

By Sandy Gingras

My mother wants her head to be frozen

after she dies. I’m against it, but

there’s not talking to her. She has a brochure.

On the cover, there’s a picture

of a white building with no windows.

I tell her, I go, “I’m never gonna visit you there.”

She says, “Fine, fine,” the way she does.

She reads me the whole brochure.

She’ll be maintained at something-something degrees

until they come up with the technology to defrost

her. Then, she says, “POOF. It’ll be like

being microwaved.” I go, “Think about

what happens to popcorn.” She keeps on reading

about how they’ll just fiddle around with her DNA,

and she’ll grow a whole new body. I don’t get that part.

I go, “What if they can’t grow you a body,

and you’re stuck being an alive head forever.”

She says, “Then you’ll have to carry me around.”

I knew it. I knew it.