American Sentencing

Abstract

Between you and me, there is nodoubt in your mind. I have been here beforeand will be again for “pseudo-gout,” “reversible lupus,” diseases ephemeral asthe skeptical blink. Unimpressive, you say. It is nodifference to you. Once again, a test outcomeis negative, as if I am less than the sum of zero,a body that registers nothing, not even the pretzelknot of all its parts. Look down my throat. Peerin my ears. Allow your instruments to dictatethe truth as you have learned it—joint connecting symptoms to diagnosis,not the tissue of intuition, notthe fatty imagination, not the instinct of thegut that is flexible and in no way demonstrable.