If You Are Careful, I Think There Is Probably Nothing

That Cannot Be Retrieved

​

Lay me down

And if raindrops fall in my eyes

Just cradle my face like before

And pull my eyelids with your thumbs

The way you've seen it done in films.

​

Then kiss my forehead

And if my skin is cold go on

Because my last thought was winter

And how the snow hare kept crawling

While the magpies pulled on its spine.

​

Now make the cut

Straight from my throat down to my gut;

You've done it like this already;

The crucifix around your neck

Scored the line each time you went down. 

​

Open me up

And if you find it let it out

Because somewhere along the line

I lost heart and swallowed the monarch I held in my cheek.