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Epigraph An offering which the king gives Osiris, Ruler of the West, the Great God, the Lord of Abydos. Let him give an offer- ing… and he has, his torso on exhibit in the Bass Museum, nut to a shell, his legs lopped off and bandaged beside him (Egyptian thrift, not Jewish custom) in a sarcophagus first nailed for a child. I guide fourth-graders toward the warped and shrunken woods, Margo claiming rights: Her mother’s friend was found dismembered on motel sheets that, sodden then dried, wrapped her torso in plaster. The husband, Margo cites. I pray it’s the mummy she remembers. By Jen Karetnick Originally published in River King Poetry Supplement. Collected in Eve and After, ©2007 by Jen Karetnick. Please request permission before copying or distributing. |
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