Preview of Postmortem – a poem by Jeanne Julian

Preview of Postmortem

Exhausted I—
            sinking into
            hot water
            and bath salts,
            less embraced
            in amniotic bliss 
            than embalmed 
            like a specimen,
            long-gone grotesque 
            (two-headed goat,
            albino frog)
            curled, pickled,
            shelved in a jar
—dissolve
in tub and eucalyptus,
calm. My stars invisible,
but aligned. Afloat.
In space. Denizen 
of the sensate, nothing
amiss. 

Water running down
the drain gurgles
glory glory glory
nullity golly
gone

and emerging 
I find my body
lost,
no face 
not even a ghost 
stares back
from the clouded mirror
and so what
to believe 
of shrouded hereafters?

 

Jeanne Julian is author of Like the O in Hope and two chapbooks. Her poems are in Kakalak, Panoply, RavensPerch, Ocotillo Review and elsewhere, and have won awards from Reed Magazine, Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review,and Maine Poets’ Society. She reviews books for The Main Street Rag. www.jeannejulian.com