Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome.
Good Evening,
You were watching a human-being being dissected the other day on television. When you saw it advertised in the television pages round your girlfriend’s house you made a mental note to ensure that you watched it.
Imagine your surprise when, having sat yourself comfortably you are plunged into discomfort from the very first scene (immediately after the customary ‘preliminary warning’ telling that ‘the programme will contain scenes which some viewers may find offensive’) which shows the skin of a dead man (who dedicated his body to medical research) literally being cut from his muscles. You watch with alarm as the scientist completes his job with the whole of the skin intact; like a suit. The worst parts, for you, are the toes and fingers, which definitely serve to provide a horrid visual for the word ‘skinned’. It takes on more meaning the more you watch.
You thought that was bad.
The doves that were found nesting in the dead man’s skull were really disconcerting. Two of them, cooing. It amazed you how sound-insulating the wall of the skull was. You were never aware of that sound in your head. Even when you frequented long periods of silence from time to time. It was explained to you, after the initial shock, that the doves sit in your skull and coo messages to various parts of the body. How you would not even be able to lift your hand to your furrowed brow in bewilderment without doves. Without doves you would not even be able to think.
You never realised you knew so little about your own body.
Swans in your stomach…How? But there it was. Right before your very eyes. A swan head clearly poked out once the scalpel had left its’ mark. You could see it. It didn’t say anything – all stomach swans are mute, though, you learned, they can occasionally produce low growling noises by rubbing a wing violently against the stomach lining. Normally when they needed feeding. Apparently (and why would they lie) ‘intestines’ are, in actual fact, miles and miles of swan neck The beak is situated right below your throat and gobbles anything you swallow yourself. Having been swallowed, it travels down the neck and lands in the pit of the swan, where it is passed through into your own bowels. You learn that this process usually takes between one and two days.
You have now taken a firm interest in your body.
The programme has served you well.
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RedmonT
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