Untitled Sculpture


Julie Herrick White 

The Body of the World 
A Collage 

The body of the world shares its hurts with 
mc;)Untains and oceans, and plenty of green 
algae exist to soak up the pain, 

yet certain cries are always picked up 
by the small and unpretentious ears of groundhogs . 

Indians howl and jump off the edges of 
movie screens, refusing to play their parts 

while the arms of anonymous women weave 
bandages with leftover strips of sky. 

And all the world's eyes gather in one dead 
Siamese cat by the side of the road, eyes still 
orange in the headlights. 

Eyes still orange, and the tails of all comic strip 
dogs wagging infinitely, 

these are the body of the world, 

including mice and teeth and grasshoppers 
and children's navels that tighten when they 
cry out. 

These are the body of the world 

including the grey marshmallow feet of 
elephants, sick to death of walking. 

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