"Incorporation" first appeared in Temenos, Fall 2010
Read it in the online version of the journal here: Temenos [Fall 2010]
Incorporation
I remember walking to school in winter
along Marian Ave—first up the hill
then down, past the Williams’ house
where, often a deer dangled, sometimes
in front when there was no room
in the back. The trees offered only
a few limbs to bare the corpses, hung
not from the neck but by the hind legs,
gutted and expressionless meat.
My boyhood perversity always wanted
to be a part of the hunt, kill the killed,
make the necessary incision, reach
for the raw heart, hoping
to see it beat, hold it in my hand.
I wanted the taste of flesh, craved
the carnal consumption, vital promise
of strength still running in the legs
of the dead—a primal lust as with love,
only the heart is not a symbol.
