~ after "The Slaughtered Ox," Rembrandt (1655)
Katay is the name for it Meaning flayed
Tufted open Inside out After the fire
singes the hair off flesh and the knife
makes its rapid zigzag through
the body's tent It is important
to know what plunged into that humid
pit The entire forearm scoured the depths
for every gift the animal could surrender
The lungs' heaving bellows Islands of spleen The liver
pooling in a green lagoon With what should we anoint
the pearled clots in the viscera A ladder
of bones revealed as the hand flies up
to the mouth More startled than clumps of leaf
pulling away from touch From
the anonymous bodies dumped there
night after night after night