JESSICA MELLLI-HAND

JANE'S ARMLESS ARMS


For every ohthankgod door that opens on its own 
a hundred more                                        trap Jane

on the wrong side     of where she needs to be
and there's never enough air      anywhere

for all the breathing
she's got          to get       done.

Her arms look like all the arms lucky you so no eyes stare
until she can’t push through    an inspiration!   push through

Liar liar arms on fire
Why don’t you ask for help     don’t you ask for help

Her presence is a knocking is a nuisance
Come in the doors’ voices say

but the doors         stay closed.

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JANE AND THE HOLY TRINITY (AND THE SPHENOPALATINE GANGLION BLOCK)

                    -for E.S., C.N., & U.K.

When the doctor slides the shush
inside Jane's skull, when he sends in
this tenderness, Jane can't remember
the difference between lidocaine
and love. The sirens quiet—
a stillness spreads.
                                     Jane's soft palate domes
toward heaven, toward Hallelujah.
Among the blood pressure cuffs
and the nurses with warm blankets
and the charts with their numbers,
something holy happens.
                                                   Praise
for the doctor's genuflecting fingers, praise
for the PT and his bag of magic. Praise
as the pain-psychologist sculpts this clay,
as the body turns to trust. Praise,
yes, for the pain and yes as it’s lifting. Praise 
for the body, raised from its dust.

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YOUNG LADY JANE AND YOUNG LADY JILL SITTIN' IN A TREE

Young Lady Jane's lips want something red.
Her hands grab whatever they please.
Young Lady Jill's made of cherry candy, but
she's melting – God’s got an awful heat.
Young Lady Jane's got to licklicklick.

Doesn’t matter where that tree might be.
The church elders' astonished dentures
will pop out, chatter in the Holy Spirit
and gather ‘round the apple-strewn trunk. 
They will chew-hew that tree down.

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THE SHAPE OF JANE

Jane is not an apple,
nor an hour in a glass.

When fully folded,
Jane is an inhibitor cystine knot.

Girl’s got three disulfide bridges
on that hot structural motif.

She is her own ring structure.

Girl’s got chemical, thermal,
and mechanical stability.

Look closely. Girl’s the shape of venom.
She can paralyze you or heal you.

Her peptide backbone is pierced. Look out!
Jane carries an amino acid side-chain.

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JANE'S COMFORT WORDS

α-adrenergic antagonist, aberrant expression noncoding RNAs, acetylcholine, afferent neurons, aggregate data, allodynia, amygdala, anesthetic ketamine, ANOVA, antiallodynic effects, aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling, biomarkers, bisphosphonates, bulbospinal inhibition, calcitonin, cAMP-mediated signaling, chemokine signaling, coagulation system, conopeptide, Conus magus, clinically relevant, coefficient of determination, complete remission, complex hierarchical interaction, confidence interval, confidence limit, deep brain stimulation, diagnostic criteria, distinct transcriptional changes, dorsal horn, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, double-blind trial, efferent neurons, efficacy, electron microscopic analyses, epidemiology, etiology, evidence-based intervention, fluoroscopy, fMRI, functional restoration, gabapentin, gene-related peptide, genome-wide expression profiling, glial cells, glucocorticoids, glycogen degradation, granzyme A signaling, hemispherical asymmetry, hippocampus, hydrophilic molecule, hyperalgesia, immunohistochemical techniques, immunomodulatory effects, increased echogenicity, increased gray matter density, infrared telethermography, intercellular cascade, interexaminer reliability, interleukin1 receptor antagonist, intractable, intraepidermal nerve fibers, intrathecal infusion, in vitro, in vivo, ischemia-reperfusion injury, Jane, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, joint stability, keratinocyte proliferation, L-arginine, L-aspartate, L-glutamate, L-kynurenine, L-ornithine, L-tryptophan, linear kinetics, lower extremity, lumbar sympathetic block, McGill Pain Questionnaire, microvascular endothelial cells, midazolam, mirror therapy, morphological macrovascular alterations, molecular insights, monocyte chemotactic protein-1, motor cortex, musculoskeletal ultrasonography, myoclonus, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, N-type voltage-dependent calcium channel, Naltrexone, NK1 receptor antagonist LY303870, NK1 receptor up-regulation, non-opioid analgesic, norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, Not-Jane, neuro-cutaneous inflammatory signaling, neural switch, neuroimaging, neuromodulation, neuropeptide mediators, neuroplasticity, neurorehabilitation, novel pharmaceutical class, novel therapeutic targets, nuclear factor-kappa beta, Nucynta, null hypothesis, oxidative stress, outcome measure, outcome prediction, p-value, pain-related genes, paraforaminal stimulation, parasympathetic nervous system, pathogenesis, pathological sympatho-afferent coupling, pathophysiology, perpetuating biopsychosocial factors, placebo-controlled, plasma levels, peripheral and central factors, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, phenoxybenzamine, precipitate, previously refractory, primary afferent nociceptors, prism adaptation paradigm, PRIZM, promising treatment, QSART responses, quantitative sudomotor axon response testing, quantitative three-phase bone scintigraphy, randomized controlled studies, reduction of bone demineralization, reliability, reorganization of thalamo-cortical somatosensory maps, reversible serious adverse events, sensory afferent axons, small-fiber distal nerves, somatosensory cortex, sphenopalatine ganglion block, spinal cord stimulation, spinal interneurons, spinocerebral tract, spinothalamic tract neurons, statistically significant, stellate ganglion block, subanesthetic ketamine, substance P, supraspinal mechanisms, sympathetically maintained pain, sympathetic neurotransmitters, sympathetic nervous system, synapse, systemic markers, thalamic transmission, therapeutic window, thulium yttrium–aluminum granate infrared laser, titration schedule, treatment modalities, two-sample t-test, ultrasound therapy, underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, upper extremity, validated and standardized guidelines, vasoconstriction, vestibular, Visual Analogue Scale, voxel-by-voxel statistics, warm phase, wind down, wind up, Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale, x-axis, x-ray validation, xerosis, y-axis, yttrium-90 silicate radionuclide synovectomy, z-score, ziconotide, Zoloft, ω-conotoxin MVIIA

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TYPO 25