(in death)
hard muscle, lacquer-dark ..yearning, did she swoon?
did she think it was for her?
what form her yielding
to feel her limbs so soft
lightly stroke each single dead hair of his
kiss his toenails wet with tears
knees, hips and stiff tasteless *******
interlace his wooden fingers
scream her teeth on his?
did she stare for long?
see her soul reflected
past his lashes
in those brilliant lifelike eyes
and clutch her aging breast
as if the glass of Masakichi's lasting mien would give her love again
whose decades' fashioning had widowed her before his death?
.
*Hananuma Masakichi was a Japanese sculptor who, believing that he was dying from tuberculosis, sculpted a near-identical, life-size statue of himself as a gift to the woman he loved. Completed in 1885, it consisted of thousands of tiny wooden pegs and dovetail joints, connected with glue. No joint is visible on the statue, and it is lacquered to show every detail of Masakichi, including muscle, bone and vein. He manufactured anatomically correct glass eyeballs for the statue, drilled individual holes to represent the pores of the skin, and inserted his own corresponding hair. He also gave it his sculpting tool, his own clothes, spectacles, fingernails, toenails, and teeth.