Booth, Dexter

The Body

1. They split the hog down the middle.
2.  
3. It was cold and raining, I remember
4. the steam and the knife and the squeal and how
5.  
6. they all left the body like a ghost.
7. They lasted and lasted and the body shook
8. in your hands. I was
9. told this is sex my friend,
10.  
11. be still.
12.  
13.  *  *  *
14.  
15. Take care to roll it
16. like a swollen log
17. pushed up from the belly
18. of the river. Gently turning
19. it over, take note of the red
20. ants harvesting what is left
21. beneath the bark.
22.  
23. Be gentle. It might all just fall apart at your touch.
24.  
25.  *  *  *
26.  
27. But I know little of the shape of a breast,
28. perhaps that it curves like a spoon on the tongue.
29. Your mother had one breast.
30. I touched it
31. once. It was a dare
32. and I was promised
33. it was the only way
34. to become a man.
35.  
36. No one thought to call the police.
37.  
38. They ran when she began coughing
39. up blood. I opened her shirt,
40. pushed on her nipple like an alarm.
41.  
42.  *  *  *
43.  
44. It was the time
45. your sister danced up
46. and down the aisles in church.
47. She was possessed
48. by some ghost,
49. a beast built like your father.
50.  
51. We sang.
52.  
53. There was dinner:
54. white bread and someone’s blood.
55. They dipped her in the water
56.  
57. and your father said she was clean.