Field Dressing

By Lea Marshall / Issue 5

Tilt back my head, begin at my chin

push your thumbnail firm

beneath my jaw, scoring

a sure line down my center—

my halves open like magical doors

swung wide before the adventurer.

Step through gleaming darkness

beneath my ribcage’s arch, push

your way through a forest

of viscera, beneath the heart

preoccupied with beating

until you come to my spine

at last. And if you pluck

the white vertebrae

gently with your fingertip

the heart will pause

amazed at your daring

hand, stop its constant

chatter, and outside

I will bloom in a red silence.

Lea Marshall is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is also Assistant Chair/Producer in the Department of Dance & Choreography. Her work has been published in Anderbo.com, diode poetry journal, Moon Milk Review, and is forthcoming in Hayden’s Ferry Review. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and two-year-old daughter.