Corpus 2462 1025 Hannah Larrabee

The mummified body of Ötzi, “the Iceman” from the Copper Age was found in the Italian Alps in 1991.

you will not
show me your
hands again,
how they cradle
a glass
of coffee.
burns a field
where no animals
live. Nothing
to save
, you say
I say, how does it
escape you?

That core of a person
that gallon
that bog
that glacier.

As a child,
I gazed
at the pictures
of Ötzi,
his thin and leathered
arms, tattoos
at the wrists,
eyes both there
and not there.
I would never
the body
but spent hours
at that kind of love.

decays, so
do our words
and the fire in me
burns down.

This is not
where you want me.

The stars make
a brighter

This is not
where you want me.

In the mountains
Ötzi set down
his weapons.
What do you see,
a betrayal?
Do not be afraid.
When I settled
my head on your shoulder
in a gallery
it was my body;
it was all I had.

Header photograph © Andrew Hall.

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