Specimen

I am ripe, full, swollen

You examine my body where it has fallen

You have a habit to feed -- and this fruit

Seems like the sweetest poison

I am supine, passive, silent

I long to be used used in the way I was meant

Obscene fertility in casual beauty

My blood spilled, my seeds spread

This is the natural way

I exist for you to evaluate

Shat out or systematically bred

Or carefully preserved but dead

“My God!” I hear your voice, “such an unusual specimen”

I am gutted, taxidermy-stuffed, mended, gutted again

I am supine, passive, silent

I’ve earned my place among men of science

My likeness described by poets and painters

The jewel of your collection

Such an unusual specimen

Gutted, stuffed, mended and gutted again

To those of independent taste

The height of fashion -- perfection!