poem || Annabelle Clippinger

Sinew: Lines


caught in muscle a mood

in a body’s moves a tablet of memory

so what is slid into a bin is the body’s candle of deemed refuse

where nebulae is the marbling of meat hung along a lacework of muscle, stars

gaseous clouds an animal’s membranes on a celestial hook,

dignified by roses as set upon a grave, in this bin

discards loosened from the skin now mean the past is a set of dreams

swirling in the path of a diamond, heedless

emboldened by what is past the path of reason

or known to be exact, like the contours of a body, defined as “maternal structures”

on the hoof, the lam, what is passing

a lament is laid upon the landscape in the shadows of a landfill

bright regardless of what is projected by the poet

all the rain washes this trash

sacrifices offered at the abattoir, incense burned

an appetite for the sacred