Slaughter

~ 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

 

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