Forensic Medicine

Text Book A case in point, the expert says; A woman thrust glowing faggots Where properly Her son’s sparrow should nest. Puerile in-law practice, he says, But good as any other To set the story rolling; begin With a burn in the sparrow’s nest To extend over all therefrom emerging Fan and flourish of the world: Hold the foetus tumbling through, And before it may express Surprise at a clean new blast of air, Lay subtle finger over mouth and nose. Watch it blue. If rather you would be coarse, go ahead, Use rope and hatchet, knife, stone, bullet, All you would on the more aged; Bodies whose gel of blood and skin Have not exchanged years against sweet air Will not relinquish with ease. Against these devise infinite means, The pictures in my book will instruct. Change vantage point inch by inch To discover them all: recall grace Inherent in each new part, find Weapon against it. Lop off limbs. Smash teeth. Push splinters Underneath nails and lever them Off fingers; offer acid in a drink of wine, The house of song is blasted. Soft skin That clothes the gentlest dunes will retract Before knife and bullet. Proceed. Flick pages. The regal column of the neck Upholding the globe of sight and sound Is often undermined; or straight Charge at speech and sight, chop off tongue, Gouge eyeballs out, hammer nails into the ear. When you have ravished all, missing No entrail, do not forget To return where you started: with a penknife Strike at the rising sparrow’s neck; With ends of twine strangle the orbs That feed him seed; And outrage the sparrow’s nest. You are now full circle With nothing Not thought of, not done before. [From: How Do You Withstand, Body; Publisher: Clearing House, Mumbai, 1976]