BLOOD
Blood is associated not with true life, but with its pale and ghostly counterpart.
Dennis J. McCarthy, ‘The Symbolism of Blood and Sacrifice’
I …spin ..my .red wool
in the purificatory rite
of ..a ..spider dropping
stitches…..onto…..steel
altars...My…šurpu..lifts
all…kinds….of…..curses
and…..bodily…….pains.
Let..me..sing..for…you
a…red…song...Let…my
shedding…..raise….the
“strengthless……..dead”
in……………supplication
that….you….and….they
may…confer.…Do…you
wish……..to………change
your…….answer.…….Pet
food……..and…a…….half
life…of…millennia,…..or
Circe’s………punishment.
Is..it..better..to..be blood
or…….swine.…..Consider
that….when…I…am..spilt
on……..infertile………land
I……spring…immediately
into….gold,…ripe…..corn.
LOIN
And we were hoping for a high yield
and we prayed to the pGH for a high yield.
I dome from the dish in the echo of a polytunnel
my rotunda bouncing echoes of a cry: yield.
I’m like the story of loaves and fishes:
we’ve built a church from grains. Why yield
now? Why not lift the crackling roof
like a stone and let the light in? I yield
to the blade, peel away from myself in a gentle
ballroom dip — this trust exercise might yield
a knowledge of strong arches. Circular structures
are a nightmare to construct but nice on the eye. Yield
to my curvature: no Greeks carved vertices.
Imagine me, Loin, a product of the sty.
* Porcine growth hormone (pGH). ‘In growing pigs, maximally effective doses of pGH increase average daily gain as much as 10% to 20%, improve feed efficiency 15% to 30%, decrease adipose tissue mass and lipid accretion rates by as much as 50% to 80%, and concurrently increase protein deposition by 50%. These effects are associated with a decrease in feed intake of approximately 10% to 15%.’
— Terry D. Etherton in Nutrition, vol. 17 no. 10.