Alien

Here lies the indifferent body of the dead,

Immaculate in concept

In repose.

Pedantic definition called the corpse.

These are the features no one knows.

Sardonic semblance of biography,

Kin to the cold page and

The bloodless word.

Deliberately devised in metaphor,

Derived from language no one heard.

Here the discarded experiment,

Obscure in implication,

Heeds decay.

Portentous the tiny, shriveled hand; yield

The sidelong glance and turn away.

Here is the stranger, here the alien,

The never-knowable,

The never-known.

Here lies the thought-to-be and never was.

Here lies the tissue and the bone.