he, she, that + -ótita, -ity, -ness
the mortician asked if we wanted
to make sure the body was her
the paiján of northern, coastal peru
believed that cutting a person in half
neck-to-navel was the final act a tribe
owed the recently dead; butterflied,
the body split open in the middle of town:
one kidney plumper than the other,
left leg longer than right
inside the slight wicker basket
she might’ve wanted to decompose in
if she knew biodegradable caskets
existed: her flesh would fall from bone
the paiján believed the dead’s
disproportion proved body
ready to enter soil
over the next fifty years & nothing
would stop her body’s release
when sun swung
down as low as sky
to keep the grass from burning,
the people that loved
the dead buried the bodies
to become soil & live as land
