Autopsy Parts: Two Poems
Hermit Crab Poetry
by Alex Vigue and Ben Kline
Description of Gross Lesions [Postmortem Love Song]
EXTERNAL EXAM: No obvious signs of trauma. Rapid pallor mortis. Petechiae on the lips and phallus. Calluses coat his kneecaps. Micro dermal welts surround the decedent’s mouth and mandible.[1]
HEAD: Freshly shaved hair has grown one half inch since [xx/xx/xxxx.] Mountain jaw and slope of piney neck nuzzled long winters when a kiss loosed too much heat.
NECK: Green ring indicating corroded jewelry. No mention in the deputy’s report.[2]
UPPER TORSO: Shoulders a resort for bad posture. Clavicles uneven. Previous break noted. Nipples point toward his elbows.[3] Sternum pools his last perspiration.
LIMBS: Arms rigorous at the sides. Fingertips just above the knee.[4] Dragon tail tattoos travel the extremities. Several piercings adorn the body including 25mm gauged ears.
INTERNAL EXAM: Cavity organs reveal accrued injuries. Lungs singed from smoking. 30cc of glittered bile[5] extracted from the liver posterior. Lack of subcutaneous fat hints toward malnutrition; no shrivel of kidneys or adrenals.
HEART: No dystrophy. The entirety of the circulatory system remains intact. All four chambers are smooth, moored to the body, responding to electrical stimuli. Slight arrhythmia under repeated pulses.[6]
LUNGS: Left collapsed; right remains full of unspoken lies.
AORTA: No plaque present in ascending, arch, descending, root, or abdominal. The trunk and branches appear clear of blockage however, scarring on the tunica intima alludes to many fleeting loves, each a small tear, mended with time.
SPLEEN: Blue with 95% coverage; no reference within PubMed or statewide query.
GASTROINTESTINAL SYSTEM: Scabbed lesions and diverticulate coils evidence previous bouts with caloric deficiency, but systems appear to show improvement. Microbiota near normal levels. Undigested french fries in the transcendent path.[7] Strange imprint resembling a wedding ring in the descending colon.
REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS: No signs of injury, only excessive use.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Ancillary reports suggest drugs and neglect may have contributed.
CONCLUSION: Cause of death, pending any further ancillary contradictions, indeterminate, like most sadness.
[1] Practice keeps it teeth-free / easily unhinged / he told me / keep trying / it’s only dying / a little / every time / we say goodbye / wonder why
[2] He gave it back / the gold “PIGGYBOY” necklace/ clinks a sad tune / to black / jeans to work / I bike
[3] Excessive pinching, dial / twisting, as if searching / a song long trapped
[4] Parallel to the tip / wives foretold of fortune / tall boys of their best orgasms / favor they denied if asked
[5] The little forever / plastics rid the body of / memory’s need / just to stop / the feeling
[6] Beats skip / a voice / scratching / Where am I / going to / ask anymore / Don’t
[7] Any hour / at MacDonald’s / the parking lot spot / behind the dumpster / greased his happy / into a grin
Ancillary Results [May Vary / Postmortem Love Poem]
Radiology
The x-ray reveals his broken rib, the one he gave me last summer, in Maine, the cabin without locks on the doors, only the windows.
Odontology
The deputy-on-scene reports being surprised he had all his teeth, the dentogram revealing he was himself not himself from recent grinding while awake, until he wasn’t, two hours after I left him in the cabin again, my shadow blue in the moonlight.
Histology
Traces of xylazine in his thigh, unidentified white powder in three orifices, silicate clouds overcast his alveoli, pushing his ribcage, billowing away from me, another saddening, crying, wishing, all the symptom gerunds he sent as emoji.
Microbiology
Contamination detected on pharyngeal swabs and sterile syringes, a conglomerate of swimming holes swallowed and every cold kiss we tried to warm alongside the stream, organs coated in iodine, off gassed and throbbing, against the scalpel’s sanitized slice into why we were there, again at the cabin, that night, the only night he confessed his feelings had changed.
Sexual assault kit
No blood or ejaculate detected, no contusions or tears, only sodium hydroxide and cumulus mucus neither the swabs nor speculum can scrape for conversations we never had, in cabin dark, about lovers worried and dreamed, fantasized even, because every violence promises change, but delivers only purple-green blotches and blunt continuity.
DNA testing
No matches found in the database of anomaly derived from mixed proteins detected; strangers linger in each other through decades and offspring, men born without cataloged identity.
Vitreous fluid analysis
TOD estimated 02:46:11, based on potassium levels consistent in blood draw and needle sample from the left orbital, after the right collapsed when the deputy attempted to lower his eyelids, his pupil so wide it ate the moonlight, no glimmer offered to the night, like a grave dug for the next day.
Board review question
Deceased 32-year-old male discovered in a remote state park cabin by first responders, no obvious signs of trauma, overdose, only enough drugs to alter his emotional state – why did the deputy find it necessary to touch his face in such an untender manner?
Board review answer
Care is the form of love we practice the least.
Alex Vigue is a queer writer from Vancouver, WA. He has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Western Washington University and has been recently published in Moss, Foglifter, and Rust + Moth. His debut chapbook “The Myth of Man” was published by Floating Bridge Press and his micro-chap "Lay Waste" was published by Ghost City Press.
Ben Kline (he/him) lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. A poet, storyteller and Madonna podcaster, Ben is the author of the chapbooks Sagittarius A* and Dead Uncles, as well as the forthcoming full-length collections It Was Never Supposed to Be (Variant Literature) and Twang (ELJ Editions.) His work has appeared in Poet Lore, Copper Nickel, Pithead Chapel, MAYDAY, Florida Review, Southeast Review, DIAGRAM, Poetry, and other publications.
