Trojan Poetry 89: "Dear Skull" by Emily Van Kley, Bjork, and Georgia O'Keefe

Bjork: Triumph of a Heart Lyrics Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoOhqSllnCc

Bjork: Triumph of a Heart Official Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvgVsxaqYgA

Dear Skull
by Emily Van Kley

beloved braincase, body’s bleeding heart
helmet law

dear ribs thick with implied meat, disused central
railroad, reverse spec house unplumbed
to propitious frame

dear double-strung forearm, dear violin bow,

dear pachyderm-eared pelvis,

dear barnacle spine—

tolerate this animate interlude, nervous tic of cell & swoosh,
elasticity & vein

& you’ll emerge, democratically beautiful,

armature to nothing

you’ll make the case for stasis, grow
each year more ravishingly still

yes, the flesh is weak,
but you are forged of patience,

ill inclined to cheer or mourn
the extraneous

—respiration, cartilage—as it trundles away