Melissa Consiglio

REMEMBERING THE OLD WORLD

We are cartographers
of ribcage, jawline,

shocked and flushed in the scouting
of spine, warm territory

of handprints; this is the end,
the final mapping,

edging of coastlines and sweat,
compassed, scaled,

every pass over skin more urgent,
the need to mirror, swallow,

bone angles, heat colors,
the last bright sting before diffusion.

Melissa Consiglio lives in Florida, loves the bones of dead people and would like to be a kept woman someday.