Two Poems

by Allison Camp

Ode to the corpse

“The Dermestid Beetle, sometimes referred to as a carpet or skin beetle, belongs to the family Dermesidate. This beetle species feeds on dry-moist animal material, ensuring that decaying and dead flesh is recycled. Invariably these beetles will show up at a carcass to aid in decomposition…” -Skull Taxidermy

My dear,  
cold     dead     damp
rotting at roadside, 
a generous splay.
Your sweet stench

lures me. Intoxicating
cadaverine and putrescine, 
pungent perfume which I fancy 
ambergris envies.

My probing mouth lovingly caresses 
each metacarpal, vertebral arch.
No pulp evades my insatiable maw.

My wormy form burrows under your fur
in gluttonous consumption.
A grotesque Hungry Caterpillar. 

Your crevices are scraped
clean in my wake,
elegant bones gleam white. 

Now, you are gone my decomposing darling.
I will hide -- secret, sealed,
corporeal melt, dream of decay.
The circularity is not lost on me.

Jumbled soup congeals,
my form recombines,
your muscle now mine. 
Spotted elytra and wings unfurl.

I fly to find you again.

Roadkill

more like
            murder via high-speed
            habitat intrusion
more like
            killer road
more like
            vehicular slaughter
more like
            we kill anything
            that gets in our way
more like
            paved graveyard
more like
            corpse corridor
more like
            a gruesome museum
            of local wildlife –
            mangled specimens only.

Allison Camp (she/her) is a Washington State native now living and working in North Carolina. She is a scientist by training and has a deep affinity for biology and the fascinating details that abound in nature. Connect with her on Substack: https://allisoncamp.substack.com/ or Instagram: @eclectic.curiosity.