Fontanelle.(Poem)

 
Fontanelle 
 
   ... so called because it shows a rhythmical 
   pulsation produced by the flow of blood 
   in the vessels of the brain. 
   --Webster's 
 
   The boggy spot atop her skull, 
   which would at birth accommodate 
   the whole pad of my thumb, of late 
   has disappeared--parietal 
 
   bones now fused into a full 
   and obdurate concavity. 
   How comforting to know that she 
   no longer is so vulnerable, 
 
   at least in that one crucial place. 
   But part of me half-misses it, 
   the chink in her small basinet, 
   and tempts me almost to embrace 
 
   the crackpot views of those poor nuts 
   who have nostalgically trepanned 
   themselves, or had themselves trepanned; 
   by drilling through their sinciputs, 
 
   they draw more blood into ...