Dead Meat

An ekphrastic poem

Photo by Andreas Schantl on Unsplash

Did you dare to tell them

how you really felt inside?

What folly — when you’ve seen

them rip others

limb from limb before.

So it didn’t matter

how far and fast you ran

for the dogs were

always faster, more determined

salivating at the thought

of their teeth in your flanks.

Now you’re swinging in the wind

a stick to hold your ribs apart,

your heart already gone.

And you’ll only be a spectacle

for as long as it takes

the blood to dry,

the pointing fingers to tire,

then you’ll be last week’s delight

a rotting carcass for

the dogs and blowflies.

(from “The Queen’s Deer” 1990 — painting by Arthur Boyd)

Ekphrasis is the term for a poem inspired by a work of art.