Her skin's movement
Her skin's movement
Rotate her, supine to prone.
Her front is neat, a clean line slit
from neck to anus,
without core.
Pare that skin tidily off
her belly and back,
loosen its fibrous grip.
Break ankles, wrists
for her feet and hands.
Sharply circumnavigate her hips,
pull the skin free
from her legs.
She is carcass. She is carrion.
Hang her on a sturdy hook
and peel. Watch the blood drip.
A scalpel inscription
through ear cartilage.
Around her eyes,
around her mouth.
This is her skin, complete.
Scrape off the gibbets.
Be sure to treat her with
salts and acids.
She'll never spoil now.
A nest of wires, wrapped
in cotton, tied with cord.
Her exsanguinated frame.
These are not real ears I
place on her skull,
not real eyes I thumb
in their sockets. I pull
the skin on. Stitch her
with crosses, tight and sure.
Attach her feet and hands.
Pose.
Preserve neither her heart
in honey nor her body
in swaddling rags. Observe her
closely; open
for display.
Rotate her, supine to prone.
Her front is neat, a clean line slit
from neck to anus,
without core.
Pare that skin tidily off
her belly and back,
loosen its fibrous grip.
Break ankles, wrists
for her feet and hands.
Sharply circumnavigate her hips,
pull the skin free
from her legs.
She is carcass. She is carrion.
Hang her on a sturdy hook
and peel. Watch the blood drip.
A scalpel inscription
through ear cartilage.
Around her eyes,
around her mouth.
This is her skin, complete.
Scrape off the gibbets.
Be sure to treat her with
salts and acids.
She'll never spoil now.
A nest of wires, wrapped
in cotton, tied with cord.
Her exsanguinated frame.
These are not real ears I
place on her skull,
not real eyes I thumb
in their sockets. I pull
the skin on. Stitch her
with crosses, tight and sure.
Attach her feet and hands.
Pose.
Preserve neither her heart
in honey nor her body
in swaddling rags. Observe her
closely; open
for display.
Ivy Alvarez was born in the Philippines and grew up in Hobart, Tasmania. Her second chapbook, catalogue: life as tableware, is forthcoming from The Private Press (Wales) in August 2004.
Page(s) 72
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The