Dissection Poem by Patti Masterman

Dissect the mystery of you?
Peel back the white skin
To more ivory bone.

Unearth the heart
Sealed in its placenta-
Does it live on love, or blood?

Uncover the eyeballs-
A too-vivid,
Unnatural shade, perhaps.

Where is the soul
Enlivening them?

The mechanical clock hands
Keep going round,
Though counting no more hours.

Nice hair, if you like it still;
Shining smugly.
It will last a hundred years.

But where is the real
Part of the man?
It is not here; it never was.