Jennifer Elliott
Still Life - Skull and Shell
The fact that copper cooled your blood to blue,
made us so very different, I thought you knew.
My flesh I carried on this frame, exposed,
to bruise, to cut, to maim
and you, I envied you your shell,
a place to hide soft parts so well.
You moved in comic shuffles, took your time,
I believed you felt no fear or pain
or vapour joys such as mine,
but now that our lives have shrivelled and gone
we've been deemed a collection, together as one,
to sit on a shelf and pose as art,
a couple in death; a quiet guy
and his fragile heart.
made us so very different, I thought you knew.
My flesh I carried on this frame, exposed,
to bruise, to cut, to maim
and you, I envied you your shell,
a place to hide soft parts so well.
You moved in comic shuffles, took your time,
I believed you felt no fear or pain
or vapour joys such as mine,
but now that our lives have shrivelled and gone
we've been deemed a collection, together as one,
to sit on a shelf and pose as art,
a couple in death; a quiet guy
and his fragile heart.
Some crustaceans use the respiratory pigment haemocyanin instead of haemoglobin. Haemocyanin contains copper and this gives the blood a blue colour.
Page(s) 34
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