Blood Eagle, etc.
By
B. Anne Adriaens
Blood Eagle
Draw your knife along my spine.
Fold back the skin and part these ribs,
then pull my lungs from their cage.
Lay them on the blades of my shoulders.
Hear how my teeth grind down this silence,
then watch my red-tainted breath
lift on one final thermal.
Passing
When does a corpse cease to be a corpse?
Where in the dirt do you draw that line?
Break it down to the particulates that held it,
breakdown of the intangible once woven
together, now loose—their purpose lost.
In the shelter of your skull, matter suspended,
—mental pain has many names— soon to scatter
then recombine into lifeforms renewed.
When does your mind cease to be your own?
Where in the brain do you draw that line?
This sudden sense of fragmented self, shattered
ego, obsolete persona: let it go, let flow.
B. Anne Adriaens’ work leans towards the weird and the dark, and has appeared in various publications, including Poetry Ireland Review, Ink Sweat and Tears, Abridged, Poetry Scotland, Stand Magazine and London Grip. Her pamphlet ‘Haunt’ was highly commended in the Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition 2024.
By
B. Anne Adriaens
Blood Eagle
Draw your knife along my spine.
Fold back the skin and part these ribs,
then pull my lungs from their cage.
Lay them on the blades of my shoulders.
Hear how my teeth grind down this silence,
then watch my red-tainted breath
lift on one final thermal.
Passing
When does a corpse cease to be a corpse?
Where in the dirt do you draw that line?
Break it down to the particulates that held it,
breakdown of the intangible once woven
together, now loose—their purpose lost.
In the shelter of your skull, matter suspended,
—mental pain has many names— soon to scatter
then recombine into lifeforms renewed.
When does your mind cease to be your own?
Where in the brain do you draw that line?
This sudden sense of fragmented self, shattered
ego, obsolete persona: let it go, let flow.
B. Anne Adriaens’ work leans towards the weird and the dark, and has appeared in various publications, including Poetry Ireland Review, Ink Sweat and Tears, Abridged, Poetry Scotland, Stand Magazine and London Grip. Her pamphlet ‘Haunt’ was highly commended in the Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition 2024.
