discrete conjecture between physicians—

their richer philological blunders quickened the cure

corkless substances wafted on the sinews—

your body’s cordage tightens against the doc’s jostling

your gored cocoon balances the room’s minuter barometric measurements

**

this inscape is more picturesque

than you remember—what a spectre!

axles resist lifting

indurated by an artless disease

(wring an entomology from the beautiful slide

foresooken just in time to gloat)

*

italicized—

your wilted words—

i felt sure my diagnosis

was correct

 

 

 

equipage arranged on a three-tiered plate

needles along the generous meridians of your body

the homeliest witchcraft

mortised bone by bone by

surgical tomes asleep under somber vexes—

their remote pentateuchal prisms

no antidote for your present swoon

**

kissed by the surgeon’s tassels—

the spider repairing your wound with its ooze—

fastening a kiss on your wince

your tawdry bodilessness brooms a distincter lunacy into the room

the surgeon’s adroiter tumble

does not mean

he is not sorer than you

 

 

_____________________________________________________________

Lara Candland is the author of Alburnum of the Green and Living Tree (BlazeVox).  Her work has appeared in Fence, The Colorado Review, Barrow Street, Greatcoat, Fine Madness, The Quarterly and other journals.  Her pamphlet, Tongue Child was published by the University of South Carolina’s Palanquin/TDM series.  She has been a finalist in The Motherwell, Hudson, and St. Lawrence book awards.  She is a founder and the librettist for Seattle Experimental Opera, and a finalist in the Genesis Prizes.  Her opera, Sunset with Pink Pastoral with husband and composer Christian Asplund, was performed by Almeida Opera in London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre.