Wounds Poem

Publication

Article

November 1, 2002

Psychiatric Times

Psychiatric Times Vol 19 No 11

Volume19

Issue 11

The poem examines the paradoxical beauty inherent in physical wounds, emphasizing their unique characteristics and stories.
It highlights the language of wounds, where each incision and scar communicates its own narrative.
The coexistence of art and destruction within the human body is explored, revealing the intense beauty of violence.
The poem challenges readers to confront the visceral reality of wounds, where bruises are literal, not metaphorical.

Each wound containsits own beauty--

Each wound contains
its own beauty--

blunt trauma indigo
walled below pale blue eyes,

the gashed leg
filigreed with blood,

an abdomen scored
by a surgeon's blade,

each layer yielding
with its own sigh,

the biopsy site healed
in a straight red line.

Each wound speaks
its own language,

every incision, slash,
cut-down and scar

in this world where
bruise is not a metaphor.

Here the body's art
conspires with destruction,

and violence surprises
with beauty so intense