Live Encounters Poetry & Writing 16th Anniversary Volume Three
November- December 2025
Glass Brain, poems Serena Agusto-Cox.
Glass Brain
Archaeologists discovered that a man’s brain can become glass. Critics say vitrification requires damage, with high heat and a rush of cold, brain cells are not preserved but irrevocably transformed. I postulate our brains are already glass. Think about the soft spot of the skull, a vulnerability leaving fragility exposed. Damaged by sturdy shakes. Even our brain chemistry is a delicate balance, easily disrupted by medications and drink. Before Vesuvius erupted, that man’s brain may have already been fissured. But what else would have been inside his skull, except for a brain made of glass?
Footnote: Articles in The New York Times and National Geographic about the volcanic eruption in A.D. 79 that turned a brain to glass.
Revenge is a feral cat
skittish and lashing.
Keep it at arm’s length.
Entice it with treats,
open hand filled with food.
Your scratches
only a warning.
Cat crawls in brush,
scoops up food.
Hope on your face.
Rough fur rubbing.
Slight purr. You think
you’ve tamed it.
Joints ache, fever burns
rash spreads.
When laughter ends
the joke is over;
joy has seeped out.
Life has stilled.
This is not the silence
of sun peeking above horizon,
eyelids fluttering in light,
coffee filling the senses.
Chains squeak with swinging
amid squeals of children until —
Crack quiets the voices, exhales cease,
and air empties of echo.
© Serena Agusto-Cox
Serena Agusto-Cox’s poetry has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, she is an editor with The Mid-Atlantic Review, and she coordinates the Gaithersburg Book Festival’s poetry programming. Her poems appear in multiple magazines and anthologies, including Washington Writers Publishing House’s 2025 publication of America’s Future. She also founded the book review blog, Savvy Verse & Wit, and Poetic Book Tours to help poets market their books.