Post-Mortem by Gieve Patel
It is startling to see how swiftly
A man may be sliced
From chin to prick,
How easily the bones
He has felt whole
Under his chest
For a sixty, seventy years
May be snapped,
With what calm,
Liver, lung and heart
Be examined, the bowels
Noted for defect, the brain
For haemorrhage,
And all these insides
That have for a lifetime
Raged and strained to understand
Be dumped back into the body,
Now stitched to perfection,
Before announcing death
Due to an obscure reason. Art by James Boswell
Recommended listening: Please Mr Postman - The Carpenters
Links of the Day: The Girl in the Cabinet (I Read What You Wrote and I Hate You) Red Lights Anti-weed film posters