And who these new masters, who prescribe
The right poses, as if one could be right
About suffering? Consider the case
of the Flayed Man, his face sculpted by pain
Indescribably, though it's Malmerist,
His lips contorted into waves which twist
Around a hollow mouth, from which a scream
Pours forth, to drain meaning of its meaning
Once and for all. The procedure begins
When a crank is turned, and the strip of skin
A surgeon has prepared is ripped, and rolled
Up on a spit.
It
ends by unfolding
A map of new, red £1esh. "What kind of times
Are these?"
Man Being Flayed, 1590,
Renders in paint a public spectacle
Which for centuries was nothing special
Though it had a purpose. When Romans lined
A brick road wi th men they had crucified
The point of that anguish was to be plain,
Less cruelty than communication.
But when a pious Japanese surgeon
Tries vivisection, only to observe
The effects, times have changed. "The man was strapped
Down on a bed. He seemed resigned to what
Was happening-but then when I began
To cut the chest open, from the top down,
I'd never seen a face like that, heard sounds
Like that, such howling, come from someone's mouth"-
