John 20:2

 

blushing
Body Worlds Exhibit
Boston

John 20:2

 

And then he breathed

on them and s…

 

 

It’s

shapes—it’s because

words have

shapes and because they make the jaw

 

muscles taut or in some degree

not       (or/and then

                        knot)

that cause

especially along

the lower bone beneath

the teeth to tighten

like a high note in the voice-

box to almost close depending on

 

the nature of what it is being

called:

                        the friction of it

                        in that room when we were told he

                        may be

                                                gone

 

an instant from leaving me he was bloody and heaving and pink and breathing and seeming

to be the very epitome of living

 

I mean to say I want you

 

to imagine

 

carrying the weight of bones

of muscles of vital

organs you are

shaping yourself and shaping yourself

around I want you to imagine

all this time is like

a great stage

rehearsal coming to the edge

of the theatre and without reason

 

            and by reason here I mean sanity

 

the seats are emptied and the ceiling begins

to fall tile by tile

moving forward from the back

and debris is in the seats

and dust is coming up dust is coming up and choaking the throat

chocking and closing the space

where the name lived where the name gained shape where the name was given clothing and shelter

 

and so it is

                                    never

                                    said

                                    out

                                    loud

 

 

and lives only now as a ghost traversing

the masseter and temporalis

footlessfacelessmute