Jared Pearce
We’re all brothers & sisters.
She told me she was concerned
we were hacking that tree
without chainsaws, but how
else teach the boys the axe,
hatchet, bow saw unless they
have a body to teach them
about trees and woods and work,
duty and compassion in the city.
We students were reverent coming
to the cadavers, careful to keep
them clean, readable. We’d lift
the skin, trace the rings, find
where a cut or vein is making
its way. The dead are fine teachers.
Jared Pearce is the author of The Annotated Murder of One (Aubade Publishing, 2018). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Coachella Review, Xavier Review, Breadcrumbs, BlazeVOX, and Panoplyzine, among other journals. Online at jaredpearcepoetry.weebly.com.
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