Corpus Delectum

um corpo/a body

o corpo/the body

esta corpo/this body

This body, my body has been drawn into the asphalt where I lay.  White chalk, bone cold and blue, traces my edges.  It shows where I start to unravel, where the edges of me begin to fray.  I deny nothing, make no excuses; there are a variety of crime scenes.  But always the yellow tape is like fly paper.  It draws them in with the promise of danger; it repels them with the suggestion of a corpse (o cadaver).  Someone, either detective or resident, steps across the perimeter, one broad step spanning the makeshift fence so that the warning becomes entangled in the pubis that bulges out from muscled thighs.  "Police..................................cross," the command reads briefly, more plaintive invitation than ominous warning.  "Do" and "not" are tangled in your crotch, each ball dangling to either side with wide uncertainty while your penis gets a little larger, a little firmer in these blue slacks.  The black patent leather of the shoe sinks into the mud and blood before you notice me.  The blue of my eyes is eclipsed now.  My mouth is strangely open and my tongue is visible.  I am a baby bird wanting.  Even dead, I am needy, aching to reach across the lines that confine me.  The wet--the rain, the pearlescent gasoline, my blood and your vomit from near stepping inside--the wet blurs the chalk's frontiers.  In this body, with this blank stare, I am reaching for you, for your pant leg, your tumescent virility, your cock, your bone;  but these cold fingers are already half way buried in cement.