I let my legs and arms come off
and lay them in the dust
My long muscles melt
Fluid oozes
all over the boards
and out across the universe
The head comes off the neck
like a paddymelon from a dry vine
in late summer
between a fence and a highway,
rolls away and falls in a hollow,
earthing itself like the skull
of Yorick
The pelvis, heavy, unclicks
from the spine
and rests,
like the rusted truss
of a forgotten chair
unpurposed
by the side of the road
Ribs fall away and stripe
the ground
All that’s left:
the heart
From A coat of ashes