Hara Kiri, by Joanne Marisa Leow

Home > Garden of Grasses > Hara Kiri Hara Kiri

by Joanne Marisa Leow
"When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?..." --- Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1

the actual self-deprecating act
of forcing oneself

to wrench the knife
handle outwards inwards?

or the slick sound of the blade
sliding through flesh;

the sensation of cold steel
piercing and skewering,

or the paradoxical pain parching,
the glittering blood scalding

inching across the skin
steaming onto the floor.

Garden of Grasses Home Page