Come to my dinner party
I will bake my ribs
sweet with rosemary
honey and thyme
160 degrees three hours long
bring them out to cool, the surface to sink
leave them to whistle-listen
the heat makes a song
you can crack the meat of them
and suck the marrow-it’s good for you-
taste the yellow and red
the cells smack of blue
Come to my dinner party
I’ll spatchcock my lungs
Sliver out the tide of spine bone
That dismemberment leaves behind
The fat and the cold scars I’ll hone
They’ll cook evenly and sting your teeth
Bronchiole flowers crisp like courgettes
With a soy broil sauce dark and thin beneath
Come to my dinner party
My fingers make the centrepiece so pretty
The rope of my stomach is pink as a picture
And runs the table lovely
The thighs are good for the meat
I’ll soak them in honey and brandy
to make them taste sweet
My elbows are tough, it’s true
The bones are bruised
The skin is blue
The eyes are no good for baking
Cloudy with fog
So I’ll replace them with red potatoes
And throw the rest to the dog
Come to my dinner party
Oh please, do
I’ll dress very nicely
I know want and love you
I’ll set my hair so precisely
And
I am so hungry
I’ll soak my liver in sugar
My femurs are for free
I’ve spent my life in hungry
It’s wet-tongued embrace
I know every inch of it
It’s teeth and it’s face
I know and see hungry
I see it in you
The twitch of your lip
How you breathe while you chew
I’ve spent my life hungry
And tonight I will eat
Rip swallow gorge
My pancreas and its meat
My palms served blackened,
Sweet-sauced, with beets
Come to my dinner party
I will filet my heart
cut out the gristle and devein the innard
I’ll leave the arteries in
they add flavour
and fry it in sesame oil to take out the taste of blood and tin
I’ll frissole my kidneys
they’re thick, soft from care
I’ll make cutlery from my knee bones
And thin a vinaigrette from the lungs’ old air
Come to my dinner party
You’re the only guest
I’ll cook the meat through
I’ll splice and cut and shrivel
Anything
I can do
To make myself sweet
and sharp
and salted
To make myself hungry for you
You’re my only guest
And if you don’t
I won’t fold the napkins
I won’t light the candles
I’ll take my plate to bed
And I’ll eat myself instead.
