As from a Quiver of Arrows

What do we do with the body, do we

burn it, do we set it in dirt or in

stone, do we wrap it in balm, honey,

oil, and then gauze and tip it onto

and trust it to a raft and to water?

What will happen to the memory of his

body, if one of us doesn’t hurry now

and write it down fast? Will it be

salt or late light that it melts like?

Floss, rubber gloves, and a chewed cap

to a pen elsewhere —how are we to

regard his effects, do we throw them

or use them away, do we say they are

relics and so treat them like relics?

Does his soiled linen count? If so,

would we be wrong then, to wash it?

There are no instructions whether it

should go to where are those with no

linen, or whether by night we should

memorially wear it ourselves, by day

reflect upon it folded, shelved, empty.

Here, on the floor behind his bed is

a bent photo—why? Were the two of

them lovers? Does it mean, where we

found it, that he forgot it or lost it

or intended a safekeeping? Should we

attempt to make contact? What if this

other man too is dead? Or alive, but

doesn’t want to remember, is human?

Is it okay to be human, and fall away

from oblation and memory, if we forget,

and can’t sometimes help it and sometimes

it is all that we want? How long, in

dawns or new cocks, does that take?

What if it is rest and nothing else that

we want? Is it a findable thing, small?

In what hole is it hidden? Is it, maybe,

a country? Will a guide be required who

will say to us how? Do we fly? Do we

swim? What will I do now, with my hands?

MARGINALIA

I hear my father crying from the other room. I thought I knew how to do this, having been here before. Damn it.

ABOUT CARL PHILLIPS

Carl Phillips   is the author, most recently, of    Scattered Snows, to the North    (2024) and    Then the War    (2022), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. He lives on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. ( Source )

Read more poems by  Carl Phillips  • Find books by this poet on  Amazon  •  Bookshop  • Follow on  Instagram  •  Bluesky  •  Website  •  Or view my library

ENDNOTES

Explore other works in pursuit of:  memory  •  rituals  •  grief  •  Or browse the index

If this work resonates with you,   please consider supporting the archive  . Thank you for reading.

ON THIS DAY

On This Day

On A Starless Night by Mosab Abu Toha

2024

Our Beautiful Life When It’s Filled with Shrieks by Christopher Citro

2023

As from a Quiver of Arrows by Carl Phillips

2011