MARY LOU BUSCHI 

Body Parts Messenger

You took time off  from school,  found an  employer  that  would  pay  you  to  imagine,  while

making  deliveries out of your own car. You drove through detours, veered past  a man using

a jackhammer, hypnotized by the endless catalog of houses and strip—malls, until finally, an

open  highway—German Techno  jettisoning  out of  your  open  window,  as you accelerated

into  late September.  What will endure? You will be 17, 19,  maybe 30, or somewhere beyond

that when you check what you’ve been ferrying. When you finally turn the ignition off,  reseal

the case, swing the door wide open—delivering one pulsating heart.

Mary Lou Buschi holds an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College and a Master of Science in Urban Education from Mercy College. She has taught creative writing and literature in the SPS division of New York University. Currently, she is a special education teacher in the Bronx. Mary Lou’s poems have appeared in Field, Willow Springs, Indiana Review, The Laurel Review, Four Way Review, among others. Mary Lou’s full-length collection, Awful Baby, was published through Red Paint Hill (2015). Tight Wire, her third chapbook, was published by Dancing Girl Press (2016).