“The Internet Tells Us” by John Cullen

         "The Internet Tells Us"

“Plastic Surgeons hate this woman,” 
who reversed aging, reduced lap and sag 
then forced the crows to drop corn and fly home.
She bypassed the laser gang and knife 
to fashion an umbrella against life’s storm
defying the cosmic order, compounding 
pharmaceuticals and organic foods in a blender, 
then painting her face with avocado mash.
Once the mask arrested wrinkles and feet,
she peeled the gummy eraser, her skin smooth,
nude in the bathroom mirror. We long to believe 
relief promised from the tragedy of gravity’s slip and slide. 
So bring on the chemical revelations! We’re ready 
for whatever scares birds or slows death’s escalator. 
This is our religion, a tree that offers shade to save life 
and line, and calls us to worship regardless of its roots.
Let’s face it; we’re nuts. We can’t stop striving 
to schnooker Father Time, though we know the body
flows in one direction, undercutting banks and tickling silt.

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