James Molloy

This is a photograph, taken on my cell phone, of an x-ray of my abdomen. In the center of the image (on my left side, pointing at my spine) is a floating white object, about the size and shape of a cocktail sword. This is a boutonniere pin swallowed accidentally at a mock-prom hosted by the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. (While adjusting the purple flower on my lapel, I gripped the pin between my teeth. Then, suddenly, it was gone.) I took the photograph in the ER of Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, IA, just before undergoing an emergency endoscopy. Since I needed to drive from the Midwest to New York the next day, I elected to undergo the procedure without sedative. As you might imagine, this decision was, for all intents and purposes, the decision of a madman.