Daddy’s Rabbit Stew

Abstract

Daddy’s Rabbit Stew Alyss Dixson (bio) I sit on your lap as you unzip a rabbit from its skin Your blade down the centerline, flaying You pull down the fur like Mom peels off pantyhose, wet from rain I imagine myself divested, like the rabbit, free. Your blade still moves down my centerline, flays me Years will pass, I will feel that blade, those cuts, gutting me I will try to imagine myself divested, free Try to peel my organs—those wet, slick marbles—strip their sacks Years will pass, still that blade, those cuts Heart, lungs: I roll them until they pop, and bleed, ulcerate I peel them, these slick marbles, strip them Of memory, the way you snapped tendons from bone Heart and lungs rolled until they ulcerate, bleed, pop Trap me in a buck-toothed mask: leporid. Gird me. Empty my bed You: snapped, like tendons, like bones; Me: casting and re-casting the ivory lengths My leporid mask girds me. Empties me Still, I peel, I strip, I gut myself to the bones Cast, re-cast, cast, re-cast. Grieve. My childhood a skin I struggle to make new. Peel, strip, gut, tender My heart to your arrivals and departures Re-make a childhood. Re-member: The cold always hugging your skin, layering ice between us My heart: Your arrivals. Your departures. Slicing like wind and steel: pain. That night, cold hugged your skin, layered ice between us I am left disarticulated, game-y with need [End Page 873] Me: like wind, steel, pain. These memories slicing through my life: You pull down the fur like Mom peels off pantyhose, wet from rain Me, disarticulated from love, a-stew, game-y with need as I sit on your lap as you unzip a rabbit from its skin [End Page 874] Alyss Dixson Alyss Dixson, an Oregon native, has worked in different venues in the film industry—at New Line, as assistant; at Rat Entertainment, as Head of Film Development and Production; and at Paramount Pictures, as Vice-President of Production, Worldwide. She has worked on the production of such films as Money Talks, Rush Hour 1 & 2, Family Man, Paid in Full, and Double Take. Copyright © 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press