Autonomous Autopsy: Chantelle Flores

"Yet, you / spectator / never cradle my quiet / skeleton / an amphitheater."

What happens when a patient is left unheard? And what happens when routine procedures root themselves into memory?

Inspired by personal experiences with medical trauma and chronic illness, Autonomous Autopsy places poetry into dialogue with found medical documents, from physicians' words and procedure synopses to MRI and X-ray images. Autonomous Autopsy explores moments of silence, acts of silencing, and sound as they are framed by, avoid, or integrate visual space and gaps. Just as traumatic memory is often fragmented, illegible, and unfamiliar, the following poems enmesh with one another, rapidly flit between snapshot moments, and scatter across pages. Gritty, fragmented narratives are interwoven with lighter, sensory-rich reflections on selfhood and desire, balancing painful memories of a medicalized body with the hopeful determination fostered in a lived body.