Autopsy

—meaning, to look into the self; to open
that inscrutable cabinet of curiosities and see

how the gut, freed from its prison of flesh, 
uncoils and bounces toward the floor. Torn from

the Root, that wicked tongue... Those Eyeballs 
from their Sockets wrung. Around the corpse's neck: 

the noose, still warm. In life, condemned; in death, 
repossessed for "nobler" purpose of instruction. 

The body's open book under the gaze of these 
men professing science: unmasked, ungloved, how

they hold themselves apart through their station and
the richness of their dress. Meanwhile, a dog sniffs

at the heart no one has noticed in its eviction, 
since it is of smaller and less impressive size.
 


~ after William Hogarth