Notes from A World Dismembered

By Elizabeth Wallace

“Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things” – William Wordsworth

I. The Cadaver(i): A World Dismembered

First: they (humans) came

Now: they’ve thrashed this earth

seizing the belt that sealed the water’s horizon

Was theirs always a grasping lunge, that

throttled every sanguine heart?

II. The Cadaver(ii): A Person Dismembered

What remains unsubdued belongs within

But: they (humans) thought of that, didn’t they?

Pills unlock gates so each parade of manufactured chemical confetti

Can barrel to these

lips

Each emotion,

Thought, emerged from pills — artificial

More and more confetti in piles,

Organize them by color, by size, by shape

The gold stars, over there — hoard them in the deepest corners,

In each fold of the brain, until each attempt yields 100%

In profit

In test scores

In “happiness”

In “love”

This mind is no longer human

It grips frailty at the throat,

Seizes each unmedicated mind

Until it becomes

Yet another elegy

Elizabeth is a freshman at Columbia planning on studying environmental chemistry and comparative literature and society. She is so excited to be a part of POTE!