Every time I got to the superior 
     mesenteric artery I'd lose my place 
     and have to start again. So I wrote 
     them down numbering them as I went. 
     One hundred and fifty different parts. 
     But no sex organs. Plate A (the one 
     with the skin on) was definitely a man, 
     but he had no penis, no scrotal sac.
     To look at those you had to look up 
     "Reproduction, Human." A couple of 
     diagrams of tubes and valves labelled 
     "Male" and Female," but no transparen-
     cies. No slick plastic, no thrill
     of turning the page, no slow strip of 
     muscle tissue, no arrows. Just an
     unaccountable urge to smoke cigarettes 
     and watch late night re-runs.