the presence a wound/
vessels
swell,

the imagination blood
and plasma
rushes to rush in
rescue squads

an idea mobile
white cells
from the bone
marrow

the throes microbes
multiply
leucocytes
swarm to

the medium the defense,
surround
the infection,
a wall,
a death fort

the thrust then fall
upon
the enemy

images expire: some fall

the poem! the contested
field
a white pus
a sylvia plath.