1) thereafter the upper bust is asphyxiated to
recall the marble of caesar or hypatia, smooth
as the movement of peeling a clementine on
a day too humid for any other fruit. the fingers
of a saint crowned too young defiling pulp
divided like veins. no discernable difference in
streak patterns than a leakage of vitreous humour,
journeys of rain blackening limestone.
2) perhaps then a portion of the torso remains
dangled like a toy for a cat, a carrot in front
of the donkey or even a daughter in front of
a mother. the crucifixion in the bathroom
mirror, half-hung and moon-rimmed, taunting
your martyrdom could never be as beautiful.
blackbird nestled in the narrow crook of a
shoulder, alleyway conducive to hurtling.
throttling of anything with wings. placed below
her window.
3) rope closed around legs like the last net of fish
for starved fishermen. before the sun is rendered
unable to hold back the monster of other men.
revolved by cosmic drainage. danger is most
prominent here, in the depression where the calf
hits the thigh. pores hooked onto each individual
fiber whispering to not let go until the night is over.
the feet wrapped in parcel packaging, latchet of the
shoes loosened like a broken love lock. uprooted
from the earth and from the soles strings of
microfibrillar muscle ligaments. the fishing boat
passes under the bridge and feels the emptiness
beneath them in the water as it holds the boat. the
fishermen did not know nothingness could be so tender.
4) do not worry. the head has not been lost. enshrined
in the dark undercurrent of the village where her
annunciation was first documented, where the fat
of the cheeks bloomed into the soil in the spring
following being forgotten, blushing into the buds
of clementine flowers. the eye sockets slowly empty
into desert-blown homes for nightcrawlers during
thunderstorms. bone into bud into birth. into rain.