From the Bottom
By Brian Henry
“Burnished,” when applied to limbs,
refers you to furniture, or wood
at least, a hint the skin has been burned
beyond the human, & then beyond.
Necessary for the removal of skin
from a burnished limb is an implement
sharper rather than duller, wieldy
& willing to dig without displacement.
The scrape of flint on a burnished limb
—if you say “arm” you must mean it—
resembles, no doubt, a chisel (of iron?)
that furls what’s before it, away.
The point of whatever has been lost
between the stasis of the burnished limb
& its movement away from the rest
of what you have identified as skin,
the skin of a burnished limb,
is to bring to bear the thought of bone
& how it relates or, better, responds
to its covering uncurling from it
flake by flake & amassing, forceless,
on the floor, the floor you will describe
as cement or concrete, at least
rug- and wood-less, the wood being
the skin of the burnished limb,
until the skin is just another piece
of your household furniture.
Copyright Credit: Brian Henry, “From the Bottom” from Lessness. Copyright © 2011 by Brian Henry. Reprinted by permission of Ahsahta Press.
Source: Lessness (Ahsahta Press, 2011)