January 2024
In looking for your body I begin at the place I know you will be,
in the place where memories are covered in paint and dust.
How does one begin reassembling the remains of a body long disintegrated?
I salvage with my hands what I can of the organic matter.
I mix in water and sweat and tears to form a fleshy pulp.
I mold the reconstituted flesh on a make-shift armature approximated from my body.
I wait for the water to evaporate, leaving grafts of undulating skin.
I suture the grafts together to form a cavernous sheath.
Hands can only reconstruct so much intercostal tissue.