Issue 5: December 2003

Jonathan Asser | Hamish Ironside | Sally Read | Matthew Welton

SALLY READ

Creation Myth

The ankle is ice-stiff, but flexes
in the heat of your hands.

You work your way up, Coppelius crafting his doll,
draw arms through straps,

and if a finger flickers in resistance or aid
muffle the lips and chastise.

I lie, grateful, disenfranchised. It's hours
of caressing, unbuttoning (tens of close, covered

buttons, rows of thin drawstrings to pick at, unthread)
till I'm lifeless, stripped of ability

to lift a hand, think That's mine, so as you break through
spasms lift me like voltage.

Still you excavate, getting more than you bargained:
dry-lipped oaths of closeness, collateral tears

(it's an inexact surgery),
and when I'm raised, millimetres

from your face, lower me, gently,
skirt round my waist, draw up the sheets

(covering the comatose, chastely) and as my eyes sharpen,
bail out to implacable sleep.

Instruction

Check: water, soap, a folded sheet, a shroud.
Close cubicle curtains; light's swallowed
in hospital green. Our man lies dense
with gravity: an arm, his head, at angles
as if dropped from a great height. There is
a fogged mermaid from shoulder to wrist,
nicotine-stained teeth, nails dug with dirt —
a labourer then, one for the women.
A smooth drain to ivory is overtaking
from the feet. Wash him, swiftly, praising
in murmurs like your mother used,
undressing you when asleep. Dry carefully.
If he complained at the damp when alive, dry
again. Remove teeth, all tags, rip off elastoplast —
careful now, each cell is snuffing its lights,
but black blood still spurts. Now,
the shroud (opaque, choir-boy ruff), fasten
it on him, comb his hair to the right. Now
he could be anyone. Now wrap in the sheet,
like a parcel, start at his feet. Swaddle (not
tight nor too loose) — it's an art, sheafing
this bundle of untied, heavy sticks. Hesitate
before covering his face, bandaging warm
wet recesses of eyes, mouth. Your hands
will prick — an animal sniffing last traces
of life. Cradle the head, bind it with tape
and when it lolls, lovingly against your chest,
lower it gently as a bowl brimmed with water.
Collect tags, teeth, washbowl. Open
the window, let the soul fly. Through
green curtains the day will tear: cabs, sun-
glare, rain. Remember to check:
tidied bed, emptied cabinet, sheeted form —
observe him recede to the flux between seconds,
the slowness of sand. Don't loiter. Slide
back into the ward's slipstream; pick up
your pace immediately.

Sally Read received an Eric Gregory Award in 2001. Her first collection will be published by Bloodaxe in 2005.