I am delighted to have two poems in the October issue of deathcap–“A Love Letter to the Cadavers Who Twice Saved My Life” and “Pedestal”.
These are both poems from my current manuscript–one from the healing section and one from the monster section. I wrote “A Love Letter…” after reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, where I learned that cadavers are used for automotive crash testing. I’ve been in multiple car accidents–two rollovers and a couple fender benders. I’m alive today because someone–many someones, in fact–donated their body to science.
“Pedestal” starts off the monster section of my manuscript, and functions as the introduction to the monsters in that section. I was fortunate enough to look at a copy of De Monstres by Fortunius Licetus when I went on a research trip to Toronto in 2017. This poem was the result.
Courtney Bates-Hardy 