Digging

 

Squatted against the bedroom door with left leg
stretched, wiping sweat from my thigh,
I shave hairs to the shape of a passport photo.
Into the good skin, steeling along
the top end of the picture – a straight incision
until blob by seamless blob, over
the Stanley knife, a rivering of blood.

Once under the fold, down to the roots,
nerve-hand holds for slicing
level the parallel lines of a photo.
Leaning deeper so the unconscious,
deeper so the gore geometric be heaped up,
I drop the silvery haft, the leg,
lug back the flap.

I hear a cry from some of myself.
So this is me. This
jameen. This meat
for which I war
myself.
This.

from Look We Have Coming To Dover! (Faber & Faber, 2007), © Daljit Nagra 2007, used by permission of the author and publisher; Recording from the audio CD Look We Have Coming To Dover! (Faber & Faber, 2008)

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