Dublin Wall. Dublin, Ireland. 2014. Anon. (photo credit: Karen B. Golightly)
Post-mortem
He didn’t smile in the picture upon arrival,
flannel shirt ruffled over the shoulders
brandishing abdominal abrasions.
X-rays caught the buckled knees
through the white body bag
masked on the dissection table.
The diener picked weed stems and seeds underneath
the nails, chopped off a long lock of brown hair,
windshield fragments stuck in the skin.
A body block lodged under the back
stretching the chest for the Y-incision.
Shears cracked the cavity, clammed-up organs
filled with rib bits.
Another incision from ear to ear,
tracing the crown covered in tire marks
from the pavement between Alpine and March
where the ambulance picked him up.
Arteries and ligaments detached, skin flaps
sewn back and the scalp tracked in Tacoma paint
restored to yesterday’s ruins.
_________________
Tamer Mostafa