My first boyfriend, The Archaeologist

 

He found the lower reptilian half

of a fossil - its cross-section limbs curled like

a tale with flipper toes intact.

 

Then he told me how flesh and bone can turn

to stone: negative particles attract

calcium deposits and gather together

 

minerals into the shape of a body –

the shards of bone now strips of stone;

the creature’s bowels now bright crystals;

 

‘till this fat rounded rump with creases is just

a rock, smooth and folded hard

in the palm of my hand.

 

 

Lecture 2: Self

 

It's when a word clogs up a thought

or checks a feeling tide

that I most long for times before

my senses died and all

my neural nodes fell into lingual codes;

just one more minute

of such life would leave it rich

to die; fulfilled by silence,

an opal eye lapping up the colours

of the seams in the wood dye, I ...