A Field Guide of Our Skin
This invisible body is a lithe
sacrament of flora, bluebell petals
reel dizzily from our thick drench of pores,
lilac deaths reek in our morning peeling.
This ill-lit musculature of fungus
is in a state of grace, symbiotic
yolks open a throat of locusts flitting
between a spit-less vignette of sinew;
flatworms rive in-between capillaries,
networks of hummingbirds smile at black wolves.
A chesty rattle of carnivores eats
droplets of greasy itches, our flesh creeps.
A field guide of our skin hasn’t been written—
still, in old age the ears sprout hawthorn trees.
Grant Tarbard is the author of Loneliness is the Machine that Drives the World (Platypus Press) and Rosary of Ghosts (Indigo Dreams). His new pamphlet This is the Carousel Mother Warned You About (Three Drops Press) and new collection dog (Gatehouse Press) will be out this year.