it was the area between the midlines of the two temporal lobes, and back for eight to nine centimetres – the hippocampus, the parahippocampal gyrus, the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices, the amygdala –

the young man was awake on the table the whole time, apparently as Dr Scoville inserted a silver straw and sucked out nearly the entire greyish-pink mass including his memory, like finest mate amargo through a bombilla.

This poem is from The Hippocrates Prize 2011, published by The Hippocrates Prize in association with Top Edge Press. © Sandy Goldbeck-Wood.

Chosen by Femi Oyebode.