inception

untitled (gauche and pencil) by katie heaton

the beginning of the end by danielle davis

She’d been a pauper
in life
but her corpse was
something divine.
All the vastness of the universe
hidden in the rot of her limbs,
in the bouquets of broken blood vessels,
and the pearl skull—
split at the center.

All the secrets of science
scrawled along the
throat stitches
where once a cherished necklace
might’ve sat,
but where now her head hung
at the mercy of a seamstress’s thread.

It had been a gruesome death.
Slow and screamless.
But now,
at the end of all things,
a Garden of Eden sprawled
undetected in her wake.
The spider was first to claim
the shattered collarbone.
The bone beetles, next,
wicked with a taste for
sweet skin.
Then, the vultures
in their royal flock,
who sipped at the marrow and
made their thrones in the pillows
of swollen flesh.
All humming together in faithful alliance
to their great, sleeping goddess.

She’d been a pauper
in life
but her corpse
was an empire.
It was small now—
barely a beginning.
But her land was rich with fruit.
There were many souls in search of home.
And death was a
generous supplier.