Museum

Photographs with bullet holes face up
or down all nude
and if alive then with priapism
or many vaginal views
an anagram between cover up and exposition
If the catastrophe goes on a man
comes into focus
in his enemy’s eyes when they meet
as expecting fathers a mother speaks
exactly of the moment
a newborn rips her groin or lacerates
her nipples later on
And the vagrant shivers deep
into the viscera and up into the arteries of sleep
your syncopated bit
that throws her down
as in a baptism her legs raised
and propped up by your legs like a table
thighs through the camel’s needle
Or when the highway wind
meets up with another wind heaving a pigeon
The thud a prelude
that leaves behind no feathers
or blood on the hood
only a crippled bird in grocery store parking lot
vying for morsels
Or pheasants
on dirt roads after curfew
intoxicated by the sight headlights reveal

Fady Joudah
“Museum” first appeared in Poetry Review (London).