For Christ’s Sake

Leigh Kotsilidis is a poet and visual artist based in Montreal. She is the co-founder of Littlefishcart Press, Fish Quill Poetry Boat, and Scientists...

From the roadside we spot
the Jersey’s hide, camouflaged
in wheat, tufts of guts and fur

in milkweed. Up close, eyes dusted,
ribs minced from the maw,
with chrome clipboards we poke

and draw the remains. Test
intestines for conductivity. Urine
for toxicity. It’s the intern who sees the cataract

of sheep over the cliff, impaling themselves
on a throng of patient bucks, the horde
of flying saucers cyclopsing the horizon. Any dolt

would make a break for it, but the expedient decline
of the intern’s mind is fascinating. Our gaze
unscathed by the alien death rays. The scene is not

unlike the movies: the darkening sky cauterizing
our vision, spectral wrenchings of the soul, one
discernable voice crying out about babes

and wolves, a plague taking out hundreds
of thousands, a flagrant flag, tattered dollar bills
showering down.

Leigh Kotsilidis is a poet and visual artist based in Montreal. She is the co-founder of Littlefishcart Press, Fish Quill Poetry Boat, and Scientists for Love. Her first full-length poetry collection, Hypotheticals, was published in 2011 by Coach House Books; and her most recent art exhibition, Lady Into Fox, was on display at the Redpath Museum, Montreal.