Corpus
 
 
Descartes

 
He couldn’t see
what he saw
without removing
his very vision
his lowly eyes
his bulbous nose
his stupid phallus
and kept removing
his other limbs
his hair and throat
his knees and holes
the bulges forming
the sides of his belly
and erased what to him
could be seen as a plot
a trick or fancy
an evil dream that
when he stopped to consider
he almost admired
and saw as a gift
a box or chest
elaborately carved
at the top and corners
an image that
when he worked it down
from doubt to doubt
to the graphs he saw
as his center
curved his thin lips
made him half-smile
and delivered him
by what we too
finally believe in
the lonely voice
the source that seeks
to find itself
or reaches out
with all that it has
or what it has left
to another.

 




 
 
 
 
 
Peculiar Ribs
from Henry Gray (1825–1861).Anatomy of the Human Body. http://www.bartleby.com


Copyright 2012, Casey Fuller

Casey Fuller lives in Portland, Oregon. Formerly a forklift driver, he's now taking classes so he can become a high school teacher. He earned an MFA in creative writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and won The Floating Bridge Chapbook Award in 2011 for his book, A Fort Made of Doors.



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