Sitting in labyrinths of cobblestone intestines I’m learning to eat the entrails of sacrifice only domestic, never hunted. pick up spoon. put down put down. put-down. pick up. um . spoon. um… putdown. there are motions for eating and I do them.
soothsayer, look down pay attention to positions, shapes knife. butter. um… bread. no. breadth. better. no. butter-better. focus. knife. better. bread. knife, knife of haruspex. knife breadth. okay… deep breath.
I have divided the livers and the watchers of victims. I have written on the anomalies in my bronze living, what I should look for, what they should allow for. my protruding viscera, my ancient autopsy of starving.
Starving made me easier to tie. easier to lift. made me feel gutted out like finished ice-cream containers but, starving made me full of household gods. made me divine. made sheeps fly. made days disappear and made cold cold cold seem like simmering. made staying out of sight a piece of cake. cake. starving made me rich when I found little boys betting quarters for eating bowels of goats. made me small enough to fit through playground gates so I could swing swing in earthquakes, and portents.
now, I listen to Memor, a man who knows nothing of starving talk about how starving I am. tomorrow I have to advise tomorrow I have to weigh tomorrow I have to swallow tomorrow I have to tomorrow I have tomorrow I am half