BPR 43 | 2016
Winner of the 2016 Collins Prize
Nothing can drown you
twice, said the mouth, lungs, and your pain
is not dependent on your belief
in it. Every mother knows
the killer is shaped like her son,
shaped like a knot,
and so much of the body
comes apart, said the Tomahawk,
said the butcher’s map,
the corpsman and her tourniquet.
Bone isn’t dead
said the flute, said the sewingneedle and caviar spoon.
And the darker the blood,
the deeper the cut said the body’s sixteen arteries.
Your sins are great, said my father,
said my mother, said everyday
for the rest of my life.