Wednesday 14 August 2024

Monique Wilmer-Leegwater: 'Schouw'

 

Inspection

 

It stops here. Here. On this shore, at the rim

of waves for hours already

busy shedding their bodies

no more returning, no mass returning

into the depths.

 

The water breaks, hauls, mauls, smashes

wildly and impatiently

deep-sea blue, deep-sea rue, deep sea

of imperfection.

 

Come no closer, offer no first aid.

 

Timidly the creature lies waiting among

the humans. Later they will take monsters

heart, melon, inner ear, lungs, liver.

Something with rotten teeth, gastric juice,

disorientation perhaps.

 

The blanched bones in showcases, back in sea

or deep earth. Registered:

gender, how old, how heavy, cause of death.


To see the original poem, go to here.

 


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