Pantoum for the Uninsured Body

By Phillip Shabazz
(A structured pantoum that exposes the bureaucratic cruelty of healthcare by framing the uninsured body as a "code they will not honor.")

The body is a code they will not honor.
Aetna sent the form to clear my shelf.
I recognize the diagnosis: 093.0.
This chronic absence is the second self.

Aetna sent the form to clear some shelf.
My fever is a tax on everything I loved.
This chronic absence is the shadow self.
I used to file the claims they now deny.

My fever is a tax on everything I loved.
The body's language: Lyme, and then the blur.
I used to file the claims they now deny.
The only medicine is the debt itself.

The body's language: Lyme, and then the blur.
The basement is a room with one wet chair.
The only medicine is the debt itself.
This currency is proof of the machine.

The basement is a room with one wet chair.
Aetna sent the form, or did I send it to myself?
This currency is proof of the machine.
The doctor's word became a second blur.

The body is a code they will not honor.
Aetna sent the form, or did I send it to myself?
I recognize the diagnosis: 093.0.

 Phillip Shabazz is the author of four poetry collections, and a novel in verse. His most recent collection, Moonflower, is published by Fernwood Press. 

His work has been nominated for Best Of The Net and has been included in the anthologies, Paul Green: North Carolina Writers on the Legacy of the State's Most Celebrated Playwright, Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath and Home Is Where: African American Poetry from the Carolinas. Some publication credits in journals include, Fine Lines, Florida Review, Galway Review, Mason Street, Queens Quarterly, K'in, and Thimble.