LIVING UNDER THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM Poem by Alice Oswald

Went out to a cafe last night a kind of hospital place with white cloths I was looking
for food all I found was the waiters were rude on their rounds the patients kept drumming
their fingers and opening their head-wounds what a burial place for dead leaves pale
endives and chives what a transplant place what a ward for transfusions those grinding engines
concealed behind napkins it's an underworld kept under clothes behind mouths I remember
the candle-lit clatter of teeth I was thinking Thank God for the background noise of the same CD
being played of a flute like a famished throat what a shame to be eaten

Then a man sat down he skewered a fact with his fork he was stroking his throat he
was bursting to talk but the woman on his left was lividly pin-pointing peas the woman
on his right was spitting a splatter of opinions mixed up with onions he said Ladies!
Admire me please! But the woman on his left was lifting a living fish to her lips the
woman on his right was dipping her fingertips in flesh she said I just ADORE the digestive system
how nocturnal it is to be eaten how airless and wet it's a quagland a wilderness when
you get down to that windowless work it's a murmurous gadget of blades which your eyes can't
enter look close! Look closer! There are ferns and flowers that bloom in the gullet it's
a dayshift nightshift shaft full of clobber whole rooms full of water and winding steps lead out to
the exit he said listen! This is hardly conversation! We should ask each other questions! Are you
fond of me both? But the meat was still writhing in his mouth he was kissing his plate
he said Waiter! These kisses are cold and you're late!

Oh the tables were dressed in white they were bridesmaids waiting to be laid there were
plates of bones being pushed to one side I said Why do you drink like that like a horse with your
lips pulled back I can see right down through the bottom of your glass to the black and sucking force of
your gut I don't like it he said Listen! It's dark living under the digestive system it's dog eat
dog down here it's a pig's dinner meaning big eat small there's no alternative at all
he said Listen! You might imagine a more nervous or lymphatic system but the mact of the
fatter is this this world is a gut and it's all we've got don't speak not yet but don't forget
the next world's going to be candle-lit a kind of hospital place with white cloths you'd better
look smart twelve silver angels will come at dark like cutlery they are cloned and
sharp