---

His frontal cortex was the chain reaction at Chernobyl
and his amygdala was the exclusion zone
and his thought processes were steam explosions
and his whole mind was stage four cancer.
His veins carried the instructions to keep working,
his fingerprints were the emergency button
and his hair was the flood of blue lights
and his liver filtered the excrement leaving dying engineers.
His constipated bowel was a delayed evacuation
and his entire digestive system was a crucial design flaw.
His eyes were radioactive contaminants
and his limbs were Belarus
and his voice was radiation syndrome.
His skin was a sarcophagus
and his genitals were shrunken trees and plants
and his toenails the dead carcasses of animals.
And at the time there were rumours his shoes were spies
and his footprints were found nowhere near the collapse of the Soviet Union
but still the chalk outline of his body stretched around the fallout.

---

Terri Metcalfe is a gardener and poet originally from Cumbria and now based in Co Mayo, Ireland. She has been published in journals such as Abridged, Skylight 47, Acropolis and The Storms. She was invited by the late Kevin Higgins as a featured reader for the 20th anniversary of Over the Edge. Terri was chosen for the 2024 Open Window Mentorship programme, during which she worked with the poet Derek Coyle. She placed second in the 2024 ‘Poems for Patience’ competition with her poem, ‘January’ and read at the 2025 Cuirt festival as part of their New Writing showcase.