“Body Breakers” by Mary Jo Thompson

A new poem by alumna Mary Jo Thompson (poetry, ’09) appears online at RHINO: 

Body Breakers

They do not perform the rite with gravity.
They talk and laugh as in any labor, the Tibetans

who help the soul to move from that uncertain
plane between this life and—what?

The lead man cuts off the limbs
and hacks the torso to pieces, handing each

to his assistants who use rocks to pound the flesh
and organs together into a pulp they mix

with tsampa, barley flour moistened with yak milk,
before they invite vultures to feast.

…

Continue reading online.