Iraqi Morgue

Blackened semi-smile

eyelidlifted   turned

 

rust fur   Can’t get a

fix on

 

mangled slab of splintered bone

stringy red muscles

 

Armpit trying to raise

mouth milk,

eyes

staring at something great.

 

Eyes like headlights still on

on twisted steel.

 

0070 64 F 04 is sad,

he’s looking up to the right

cheeks bulging.

 

Some are camouflaged, it seems,

with death labels &

plastic label bags

–ears show,

a tooth rip.

 

Black skin rubble

no eyes   upper teeth

in death lisp.

 

Faceless,   no, burned to

a congealed

insectile smear.

 

Shattered lit

skull rubble through which

one eye blasts.

 

Maroon head skin

tucked up about its bag shoulder

as if asleep.

 

What am I looking at?

At horror looking through

an 1899 update:

after the lynch picnic,

the knuckles of Sam Hose displayed

in the window of an Atlanta grocery.

 

340 04 V 04

nearly all blood.

 

Very old man gray

turned head cupped

in death sheet blossom.

 

Clayton Eshleman

 

from An Alchemist with One Eye on Fire (Black Widow Press, 2006)


This entry was posted on in homepage, Uncategorized and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.