Poem
Gieve Patel
POST MORTEM
POST MORTEM
POST MORTEM
It is startling to see how swiftlyA man may be sliced
From chin to prick,
How easily the bones
He has felt whole
Under his chest
For a sixty, seventy years
May be snapped,
With what calm
Liver, lung and heart
Be examined, the bowels
Noted for defect, the brain
For haemorrhage,
And all these insides
That have for a lifetime
Raged and strained to understand
Be dumped back into the body,
Now stitched to perfection,
Before announcing death
As due to an obscure reason.
© 1966, Gieve Patel
From: Poems
Publisher: Nissim Ezekiel, Mumbai
From: Poems
Publisher: Nissim Ezekiel, Mumbai
Poems
Poems of Gieve Patel
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POST MORTEM
It is startling to see how swiftlyA man may be sliced
From chin to prick,
How easily the bones
He has felt whole
Under his chest
For a sixty, seventy years
May be snapped,
With what calm
Liver, lung and heart
Be examined, the bowels
Noted for defect, the brain
For haemorrhage,
And all these insides
That have for a lifetime
Raged and strained to understand
Be dumped back into the body,
Now stitched to perfection,
Before announcing death
As due to an obscure reason.
From: Poems
POST MORTEM
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