A ticket pinned to the thigh reserves it,
the whole cadaver is parceled off - of course.
Legs are a late harvest, these often-indigent parts
carry a visual poverty long after the body is plucked.
Under watchful eyes the young medics
separate muscle groups, filter large blood vessels
from fibrous runnels, hesitant scalpels
seek out fascial planes.
The leg is devolving to scraps,
yet, ingrained in the tissue
I sense residual shades of a former life,
seaside postcards, old photographs,
perhaps campaign ribbons, odd tokens
amongst yellowed newspaper clippings,
all briefly surface as conjectured images
beneath a probing knife.
The gray flesh retains its personal history,
I imagine that behind the knee
there is a wife, children, and a separation
all spectrally etched between femur and tibia.
Much of the ensuing bone-whittling years
are demonstratively scored
across a formaldehyde and jelled narration.
The students suppose they dissect a limb,
while I notion that I turn over bloodless pages,
of an unwritten story,
and now the last few attached ligaments
remain as threads that speak at last
of a long journey’s end.
A ticket pinned to the thigh reserves it,
the whole cadaver is parceled off - of course.
Legs are a late harvest, these often-indigent parts
carry a visual poverty long after the body is plucked.
Under watchful eyes the young medics
separate muscle groups, filter large blood vessels
from fibrous runnels, hesitant scalpels
seek out fascial planes.
The leg is devolving to scraps,
yet, ingrained in the tissue
I sense residual shades of a former life,
seaside postcards, old photographs,
perhaps campaign ribbons, odd tokens
amongst yellowed newspaper clippings,
all briefly surface as conjectured images
beneath a probing knife.
The gray flesh retains its personal history,
I imagine that behind the knee
there is a wife, children, and a separation
all spectrally etched between femur and tibia.
Much of the ensuing bone-whittling years
are demonstratively scored
across a formaldehyde and jelled narration.
The students suppose they dissect a limb,
while I notion that I turn over bloodless pages,
of an unwritten story,
and now the last few attached ligaments
remain as threads that speak at last
of a long journey’s end.
With its silvery veil the moon's pallid sheen
Spectrally cloaks and invests all the homes
Transformed into midnight mausoleums
While those who sleep within can never be seen
As cold as the tomb
As miserable as a morgue
As silent as the grave
As the sheathing of a sword.
The dark shades of night unfold
Where they lie deep shrouded in their beds
Dreams dance lively in their heads
While they look like bodies cold.
Closed to all are the eyes of their resting places
Blinded to outside view
Wrapped in night's dark blue
But within their still frames R.E.M races
Outside in the gloom wreathed like hearses
Stand their silent polished cars in rows
In preparation for sadder blows
When funereal will be the verses.
SCARS, THE SILENT WITNESSES
They sneak back as time slips fast,
Scars like ghosts of the past,
Irritating guests for dinner
Under your skin as it gets thinner.
These old witnesses emerge spectrally
Long forgotten, long-buried ancestrally
Under the mobile flexible skin
Of youth and the middle age you were in
Where work and movement, those liars,
Disguised the faces of these testifiers.
These spectators who saw your act
And then left the theatre untracked -
And your fruits which were forgotten,
Rosy red or sometimes rotten -
Revealing what fitted your basket well
And what things from it fell.
These Fates forcing you to reassess your existence
In the penultimate chance at repentance.
The evidence is there: you must account
Before the last courtroom to count.
Scattered across a thousand cities
(After the last window darkens).
The moon speaks hidden fantasies,
and the sleepy sunset sharpens.
Emerging exactly in the last ludicrous light
(The dawn of you erects constellations).
Softly, with strolling lips singing spectrally slight,
the rumor of your touching exceeds all aspirations.
For blindly, as the nails upon the cross
(A dainty destroyed hero loves you).
Beyond falling for or feeling loss,
your least amazing smile will do.
So give what gives meaning to meaningful,
the life inside you undefined beautiful.
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