Palu Museum megaliths
the thousand-year-old figures
show the body plain
and filled with power
fierce naked stone spirits
all eyes ears nose genitalia
perceiving generating nourishing life
Alex told me about the cadaver
what they do to help the students
view it as form not being:
cover the face (obviously)
but also the hands
the hands disturb them
when they wield the knife
too personal and desperate
too likely to move
every day everywhere
we learn what makes us human
all us apes gathered in a clearing
thinking about the ones before us
who chipped stone with stone
to leave for us these silent symbols
saying who we were
