The Body Farm, by Carol McMahon

from What Remains, a book of images on the subject of death, by Sally Mann (USA), 2003. Some photos were taken at the University of Tennessee's anthropological facility, known as "The Body Farm."

​The Body Farm (for Sally Mann)
                      
She used her lens to capture
where we go when there’s nowhere 
left. What happens when we submit
to nature’s whims? Abandoned,
we un-fallow the fields with our mantle
of flesh shrugged off and left behind. 

What can be learned from bones
rat-gnawed when greasy, 
               squirrel-gnawed when dry?
An accounting of time’s passage, assigning
cause and blame— There are worse things 
than to be watched over, even in death.

Carol McMahon

Carol McMahon is a teacher and poet who has been published in various journals (Prodigal, IthacaLit, Unlost Journal, The Wild Word, Blue Collar Review) and has a chapbook, On Any Given Day, published by FootHills Press. McMahon received an MFA in Poetry from the Rainier Writing Workshop in Washington State and when not teaching, reading or writing can be found out trail-running or on the water rowing.