Freakish Confirmation

by Bruce Boston

At the age of fifty-five
I receive substantive evidence
for what I have known
since I have known
anything at all.

After X-raying my spine
my chiropractor blinks,
and blinks again.
"You have two extra ribs!"
she tells me. "And one
extra sacral vertebra!"

I am a freak of nature.
A mutant under the skin.
A skeletal overachiever.
That one in a million
and a half kind of guy.

Back on the street
I open my chest,
remove two long bones,
toss them into the clouds.
"Make me a couple women?"
I say. "Eve-like and tempting?"

The extra vertebra
I decide to keep for awhile.
At least until I figure out
how sacral it really is.

First appeared in Asimov's SF Magazine