Like a Starfish

after, Health Officials Urge Doctors to Address IUD Insertion Pain

New York Times, Aug. 7, 2024

Yes

our cervixes have nerve endings.

Are not meant to be 

pried open, prodded, and scraped 

while we lie awake. 

As anyone who’s had 

an unmedicated pelvic procedure 

can tell you - 

my friend who said 

she’d knock herself out with a frying pan

when she got her IUD removed 

or the one who suffered for weeks

the misplaced contraption

puncturing her ovary  

or me  

who had cells plucked 

from the outside with tweezers,

the inside swept and scratched,

deep breaths and ibuprofen

not enough to touch 

the pain. 

When they biopsy a mole from your arm 

they inject you with numbing shots. 

When they take a piece of your cervix 

they tell you the cervix is like a starfish

growing back over the hole they made.

I want to make the punchline

the fact that starfish are 

non sentient but it turns out 

they might feel pain

and whole studies are devoted 

to echinoderm anesthetics. 

So instead the punchline is this: 

They have been anesthetizing the starfish

while we writhe like animals 

on sterile medical tables

all the while marveling -

how fascinating is the female body, 

it touches the outer limits of torture

and still survives.

On Hurting Creatures Because You Can

As a child I watched a friend 

slice a worm’s body in half

led out to the sidewalk by the

smell of wet concrete and musk. 

Her pointed fingernail marked 

by the faded brown blood 

like a memory as the worm’s halves 

wriggled on. Like the stories of chickens 

running with their heads cut off 

before they collapsed. 

But just because something can survive 

doesn’t mean we should force it to endure. 

Isn’t that what God has done for generations? 

Throwing lightning spikes through the atmosphere

to marvel at our resilience. And look how we suffer. 

How I no longer believe.

When They Tell Us the World is Ending This Year

At least we can cash out our retirement accounts,

fly first class to Italy or Peru or Antarctica,

at least we don’t have to feel as bad

about flying if the world is ending anyway. 

At least we don’t have to watch the dog die first,

at least we can quit our jobs, read books

until the end of time, which is actually 

the end of time this time. 

At least we don’t have to see our parents 

age for much longer, at least we found each

other before the end, at least the decision 

not to have children is an easier one.

At least we can go outside, sit in the sun 

and still, for now, withstand it.

Haley DiRenzo is a writer, poet, and practicing attorney specializing in eviction defense. Her poetry and prose have appeared in BULL, Epistemic Literary, Eunoia Review, and The Winged Moon Literary Magazine, among others. She is on BlueSky at @haleydirenzo.bsky.social and lives in Colorado with her husband and dog.