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somethingdarkerAbdomen:
A low-pressure system in the abdomen - Amaud Jamaul Johnson "LA Police Chief Daryl Gates Dead at 83"
Afterbirth:
Floating on the currents of afterbirth - Cynthia Hogue "The Changeling"
Shiny with its afterbirth of light - Gregory Orr "Eden and After: To See"
Anatomy:
Her anatomy in irregular stars - B. K. Fischer "Week 30 (Maternity Bathing Suit)"
Don't mistake anatomy for emotion - Lisa Sewell "Letter from a Haunted Room"
Ankle.
Antenna.
Antler.
Arm.
Artery.
Ass.
Back (all usages).
Beak.
Beard.
Belly.
Bile:
Polluted its waters with the bile of my hatred - Frank Horne "Letters Found Near a Suicide" [Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, ed. by Countee Cullen, 1927]
my tongue is bile & tomorrow - Jzl Jmz "Exhibition"
grow bile and peaks of anger - Brandon O'Brien "The Creature from the Black Lagoon Is Your Father"
Powder and shot make men swallow their bile - "The Proclamation" [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, no.CCCXXXIX, v.LV, Jan. 1844]
Bill:
Beaks and bills snap at our eyes - Shantell Powell "Nuliajuk and the Birds" [Strange Horizons 3 March 2025]
Came with strawberry leaves in her bill - Elizabeth Madox Roberts "Babes in the Woods"
Birthmark:
A birthmark with visions to see past illusions - Votey Cheav "When a Kingdom Falls/Shakti's Kisses"
Birthmarks on curved ivory tusks - Cynthia Manick "A Taste of Blue"
Gives up boyhood scars and birthmarks - Lauren Mesa "The Years We Will Know Them" [Poetry, January 1988]
Bladder:
The bladder and the kidney began to quarrel - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Blood.
Bloodstream
Blowhole:
Moonlit blowhole plumes of sound - Brandy Nālani McDougall "This Island on Which I Love You"
Body.
Bone [category].
Bosom.
Bowel:
A thought encased in deep, riverine bowels - Paul Cameron Brown "Reading the Tides: Petroglyph Park"
To warm his bowels with strong potations - Euripedes "The Cyclops" transl. by Michael Wodhull
In the bowels of the concrete monster - Joy Harjo "Hieroglyphic"
Which troubles the bowels of earth - Mrs. A. Ritson "Classical Enigmas"
Brain.
Brainstem:
half minutes of fire in my brainstem - Kaveh Akbar "Against Dying"
Breast.
Brow.
Butt:
Under the florescent butts of night's cigarette - Amber Tamblyn "Epilogue"
Calf:
Nettles seizing at her calves - Caroline Harper New "The Elephant Mother"
Callus.
Capillary:
Pluck apart capillaries to weave my cradle - Sara S. Messenger "Your Subcutaneous Mermaid"
Carapace:
An empire of moss, dead yellow, and carapace - Randall Mann "The Fall of 1992, Gainesville, Florida"
Safe inside our carapaces - Devin Miller "The Malachite Storm"
Inside the carapace of dress - Claire Millikin "The Unpopular Dress"
The beetle with its carapace of sun - Kiki Petrosino "The Child Was in the Woods"
Cartilage:
cartilage sighing apart like petals - Jennifer Mace "Morphology"
Caul:
By dark in the caul of the devil - John Bosworth "A Boy Can Wear a Dress"
Wearing the century's dark caul - Claudia Emerson "Atlas"
Born to trade as to a caul - Lola Ridge "The Ghetto"
Cheek.
Chest.
Chin:
I wear your black cursive on my chin - Yalie Saweda Kamara "Trim"
Folded close beneath whisker and chin - Joyce Sidman "Shhh! They Are Sleeping"
Gather the chin hairs of a man-eating goat - A.E. Stallings "Fairy-tale Logic"
Chrysalis.
Claw.
Cocoon.
Collagen:
Diminished to a hush of keratin and collagen - Lyz Soto "Today I Am Full of Birds"
Not collagen but spite - Wendy Xu "Notes on Sentence Crossing"
Cornea:
Pockets of mist in night's corneas - Sheikha A. "Nesters"
Corpse.
Cortex:
Inside the raw cortex of songs - Joy Harjo "Autobiography"
Countenance:
The countenance of the heart is made better - Nancy Luce "No Comfort"
A glance of wrath upon her countenance - Myron L. Mason "Zenobia" [Graham's Magazine v.XXXIII no.4, Oct. 1848]
The countenance and gestures of Mercy - J. Sylvester "Mercy and Justice" [Mirror of Literature v.13 issue 358, Feb. 1829.]
Craw:
A funeral like a craw full of teeth - Pablo Neruda "Evening LIX" transl. by Stephen Tapscott
Crest.
Cytoplasm:
In the cytoplasm of their cells - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Dendrite:
The dendrite branching of frost on a window pane - Stephen Leggett "Seven Winter Poems"
DNA:
Taught recombinant DNA to recombine - Duane Ackerson "What If"
With a DNA sequence of bullets & blood - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Ear.
Eardrum:
Beating in the sky's eardrum - Deema K. Shehabi "Vista"
Egg/Eggshell.
Elbow.
Embryo:
To will those gossamer embryos into growth - Geffrey Davis "The Epistemology of Rosemary"
Entrails:
Look into the entrails of Uranus - Audre Lorde "A Woman Speaks"
In the darkest entrails of greenness - Pablo Neruda "The South" transl. by Alastair Reid
To the entrails of the earth - Paul Valery "Palme" as translated by May Sarton in 1954
Epithelium:
An epithelium of silence - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Eye.
Eyeball:
With form canine endued, and eyeballs glaring fire - Euripedes "Hecuba" transl. by Michael Wodhull
From her envenomed eyeballs bright the Gorgon thus directs the wound - Euripedes "Hercules Distracted" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Eyebrow:
An eyebrow in the ocean - Rindon Johnson "There Is a Black Fly in Your Chardonnay"
Each change of love in eyelids and eyebrows - Algernon Charles Swinburne "Before Parting"
Eyelash.
Eyelid.
Face.
Fang.
Fat.
Feathers.
Feet/Foot.
Fetal:
Mirror the fetal scroll of fiddlehead ferns - Kimberly Blaeser "Cadastre, Apostle Islands"
Fin:
Replaced by a dark fin cutting out to sea - Duane and Cathy Ackerson "Second Bait"
Thrashing the waves with fins of gold - Roy Campbell "The Porpoise"
A hundred fins in the ocean of my chest - Zilka Joseph "Gourami Fish Tale"
A shattering of murky fins raining into silver scales - Laura Ma "Cradling Fish"
Finger.
Fingernail.
Fingerprint.
Fingertip.
Fist.
Flank.
Fleece.
Flesh.
Forearm:
You drew your visions on my forearm - Amie Whittemore "The Alien Epistles, Letters 1-3"
Forehead.
Freckle.
Fur.
Gall.
Gene/Genetic.
Gill:
Red claws to clutch and gills to gasp - Leah Bobet "Full Fathom Five"
Gills hidden under keloid skin - Rain Prud'homme-Cranford "Gills"
Gland:
This honey-glanded pitcher plant - Jennifer Elise Foerster "Hvmken 11"
Gullet:
Its gullet is full of pennies - Aimee Le "American Poetry/The Age of Hypocrisy, Part II"
Gut.
Hair.
Hand.
Haunch:
The wolf was won by haunch of venison - John Gay "Fable LIX: The Jackall [sic], Leopard, and Beasts" [edited, updated, & adapted by John Benson Rose]
To bite the haunch of some passing perfume - Dean Young "Shamanism 101"
Head.
Heart.
Heartbeat.
Heel.
Hind Leg:
Herds of triceratops lunge up on their hind legs - Kaveh Akbar "The Perfect Poem"
Hip.
Hock:
Train piston for hock & hoof - Brandon Som "Resistors"
Hoof/Hooves.
Horn.
Hump:
a camel with a hump of sticks - Valzhyna Mort "In the Woods of Language, She Collects Beautiful Sticks"
Ichor:
The ichor spilling from this illusion - Lisa M. Bradley "Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas Lost at Sea, 1527"
Polished stones hardened from ichor - Cyree Jarelle Johnson "false sonnet embroidered w/four loko empties"
Blood thins to Gods' ichor - Stephen Oliver "Zionism"
Immune System:
The endless battle between my immune system & embedded phosphorus - Casey Aimer "Body Revolt"
Incisor:
Whose sharp incisors have gnawed many a keel - Thomas Bailey Aldrich "Wyndham Towers"
Innards:
With the innards from an old fashioned clock - G. O. Clark "Mary Has a Prophetic Vision"
Inner Ear:
Shaking grains against the three wired bones of my inner ear - Dean Young "Age of Discovery" [Poetry, January 1988]
Intestine:
Biologists will unspool her empty intestines - Rachel Dillon "A dead whale can feed an entire ecosystem"
Ivory.
Jaw.
Joint.
Keloid:
Gills hidden under keloid skin - Rain Prud'homme-Cranford "Gills"
Keratin:
Diminished to a hush of keratin and collagen - Lyz Soto "Today I Am Full of Birds"
Kidney:
The bladder and the kidney began to quarrel - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Knee.
Knuckle.
Lap.
Larynx:
Silence that deluged the larynx - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
With screens of mourning in their larynx - Oriana Méndez "Farewells" transl. by Erin Moure
Leg.
Ligament:
for how long will the ligaments last - Jarid Arraes "Movement"
Limb.
Lip.
Liver:
With my liver gnawed by mice - Daisy Aldan "The Little Mermaid"
Eat cod liver oil and oatmeal - Lou Barrett "Oliver Hill Hotel: 1932"
A liquor I mix'd with my cod-liver oil - Henry S. Leigh "Songs of the Sick Room No. 1: Cod Liver Oil"
The liver was a prophet - Kristen Tracy "Hepatoscopy"
Loin:
Loins of the lion and splendor of the eagle - William Rose Benét "The City"
In the strong loins of time - Eunice Tietjens "Children of War"
Lungs.
Mandible:
Once smeared on the mandible of a bee - RK Fauth "Playing with Bees"
On the mandible of a bee - RK Fauth "Playing with the Bees"
Bowed mandibles chittering superstitious drivel - Sara Omer "Djinndroid"
Mane:
A horse carries autumn in his mane - Joseph Fasano "Mahler in New York"
One mane of a thousand lions - Lola Ridge "Firehead part VI: The Merchant of Babylon 3: Lullaby"
The whistling mane of every wind - Charles Warren Stoddard "Ave Maria Bells"
Dry the damp on the horse's mane - Judy Patterson Wenzel "Come Shaker Life"
Maw.
Membrane.
Metabolism:
In the overheating metabolism of destiny - John Kinsella "Reptile in Roof Space"
The metabolism of the hidden springs - Tim Newcomb "Ten Minutes South of the Port of Tacoma"
Moustache/Mustache:
Made yourself a mustache of gold - Lou Barrett "Oliver Hill Hotel: 1932"
Twirled his November moustaches - William Carlos Williams "Light Hearted William"
Quietly twirling his green moustaches - William Carlos Williams "Light Hearted William"
Mouth.
Muscle.
Musk:
Sweet with breath of musk - Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall "A Night in Italy"
Live to breath April's musk another day - L. Lamar Wilson "Lauren Oya Olamina Explains Earthseed to Ernest Hemingway"
Neck.
Nerve.
Nerve Ending:
The nerve endings of tendons are fueled by the sun - Rodrigo Toscano "Habilitas"
Nervous System:
Our rightly designated nervous systems - Scott Cairns "Adventures in New Testament Greek: Nous"
Neural/Neuron.
Nose:
Many foes, behind, before, beneath your nose - John Gay "Fable LX: The Degenerate Bees" [edited, updated, & adapted by John Benson Rose]
To leave dog's noses no evidence - KaNikki Jakarta "A Wading"
Powder their noses with pollen - Maurya Simon "Angels"
The nose-down fly on my floorboards - Ari Banias "Tribute"
Nostril:
Black, curdling fog climbing into their nostrils - Tylor James "I Grew Up in a Haunted House"
Inside the nostrils of searchlights - Ilya Kaminsky "Soldiers Aim at Us"
Clamps his nostril and shuts his eye - Sidney Lanier "The Symphony" [Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, June 1875, v.XV]
Because the breath in our nostrils is smoke - "The Wisdom of Solomon 2" [Project Gutenberg. The Wisdom of the Apocrypha. 1910. Ed. by L. Cranmer-Byng and S.A. Kapadia]
Nucleus.
Organ.
Palate:
Burst Joy's grape against his palate - John Keats "Ode on Melancholy"
Palm (body part).
Pancreas:
The thyroid and the pancreas joined the outbreak - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Pate:
The feather pate of folly bears the falling sky - A.E. Housman "A Shropshire Lad XLIX"
Paw.
Pelt.
Physique:
Their red and golden physique of sly heat - Joanne Merriam "First Contact"
Pinion.
Placenta:
To ask the placenta for its numerical origin - Zaina Alsous "To a Young Poet"
Plexus:
Horizontal to vertical, particle to plexus - Mary Jo Bang "The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity"
Plume.
Pore:
Through my pores of stone - Alice Corbin Henderson "From the Stone Age"
Prosthetic:
Prosthetic molded to her mouth - Samantha H. Chung "Time Traveler's Haibun: 2024"
Protein:
all your proteins disassemble - Amy Beeder "My Poisonous Cousin the Pipevine Swallowtail"
Unlimited protein falling from the sky - Keith Taylor "One Species to Mourn"
Between spiraling strands of protein - Keith Taylor "Summer Teaching"
Protoplasm:
A protoplasm for next of kin - James C. Bayles "In the Gloaming"
The protoplasmic source of all things - Mary Hickman "Still Life with Rayfish"
Psyche.
Pulse.
Pupil:
Welled up in your darkened pupil - Johnson Cheu "Wail"
The sparks of the star in her pupils - Thomas Hardy "The Second Night"
The pupil dilated to the wellspring of her soul - Harry Martinson "Aniara 88" transl. by Stephen Klass and Leif Sjöberg
Quill.
Retina:
Through the afterburn on my retinas - Lisa M. Bradley "Una Cancion de Keys"
Limned on the mind's retina - E.O.H. "Dreams" [Graham's Magazine v.XXXIII no.4, Oct. 1848]
Tinging the retina with rays from sky - Mrs. L.H. Sigourney "Laura Bridgman"
Ribosome:
Ribosomes in the scabbard of their maker - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Ring Finger:
Dollar bills for his index and ring fingers - Jake Skeets "Drunktown"
Ruff:
Lift the frowsy ruff of owls - Hailey Leithauser "Fever"
Scalp:
I wear their writhing roots across my scalp - Molly Raynor "A Dressed Up Potato Is Still a Potato (Yiddish Proverb)"
Pythons and boa constrictors plucked from a gorgon's scalp - Alyza Taguilaso "Add to Cart"
Seashell.
Shell.
Shoulder.
Sinew.
Skin.
Smile.
Snout:
Of ancient blood devoured by the jaguars' snouts - Pablo Neruda "Guatemala" transl. by Jack Schmitt
Catch the sun upon their snouts - Lola Ridge "Death Ray"
The snouts of the hungry hunting storms - Carl Sandburg "The Windy City"
Sole/Solely.
Spit.
Spleen.
Spoor:
Silting their famished spoor of boots and buttons - Sonya Taaffe "Amitruq Nekyia"
Sternum:
The stone sternum of night - Urayoan Noel "cinquains written during a tropical storm"
Spirits bang on my sternum - Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez "Bomba"
to thread my sternum through to you - Dior J. Stephens "a letter to charlie parker"
Sting.
Stomach.
Sweat.
Synapse:
Lightning leapt from her synapses - Mike Allen "Metarebellion"
Of synapses snapping in your mind - Andrew Sinclair "Queer-Pastoral, Somewhere in the Slipstream"
Syrinx:
But understand the notes through each syrinx - Nickole Brown "Prayer to be Still and Know"
Tail.
Talon.
Taste Bud:
Taste buds adjusting to the taste of hunger - Susan Nguyen "Letter to the Diaspora" p.56
Tear.
Teardrop.
Teeth/Tooth.
Tendon.
Tentacle.
Thorax:
Her thorax full of strange ideas - Leah Komar "Colony Collapse Disorder"
Throat.
Thumb.
Thumbprint.
Thyroid:
The thyroid and the pancreas joined the outbreak - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Toe.
Toenail:
Talons and toenails claw at our flesh - Shantell Powell "Nuliajuk and the Birds" [Strange Horizons 3 March 2025]
Tongue.
Tonsil:
a tonsil in the mouth of space and time - upfromsumdirt (Ron Davis) "Bleeding The Calf"
Tress:
Paint your tresses with silvered brush - John Philip Bourke "Till Day Is Done"
Strewed their shorn tresses on Scamander's banks - Euripedes "Helen" transl. by Michael Wodhull
With tresses shorn, in concert weep - Euripedes "Hercules Distracted" transl. by Michael Wodhull
The hopvine's tresses sweeping the low roof - Miss Virginia Townsend "The House in the Lane" [The Continental Monthly v.5 no.5, May 1864]
Drowning in the tresses of a darker Lorelei - Humbert Wolfe "Heine's Last Song"
Trunk.
Tusk:
With ragged tusks of anger - Elizabeth Barrett Browning "A Drama of Exile"
A wave with tusks of a boar - Fanny Stearns Davis "Storm Dance"
Birthmarks on curved ivory tusks - Cynthia Manick "A Taste of Blue"
Who parted waters with a glistening tusk - Lola Ridge "Easter Morning"
Umbilical Cord:
terror is the knotty clutch of an umbilical cord - DaMaris B. Hill "Come. Pray. Know"
Underbelly:
The tide with the grainy underbelly of industrial light - Christopher Buckley "Prayer To Escape The East"
Fear and hands, underbelly and blade - Nicole Homer "Underbelly"
Upper Arm:
Two wounds in my upper arm and in my heart - Charles Wright "My Old Clinch Mountain Home"
Vascular:
The vascular trauma of hurt in my blood - Prageeta Sharma "Lateral Violence"
The vascular system of flowering things - Jessica P. Wick "Sap and Superstition"
Vein.
Venom.
Visage.
Viscera:
Visceral commitment to rearrange space - Andrea Abi-Karam "DEAR GABRIELLE"
Knowing that each layer is a viscera of pain - Giorgiomaria Cornelio "La specia storta (The Bent Species)" transl. by Moira Egan
Land in the viscera of night - Elizabeth Rees "Scorched Earth"
Vocal Cords:
The honey I swallow to soothe the vocal cords - Regie Cabico "Morning After the Election"
Voice.
Voice box:
Like a collector of voice boxes - Raymond Antrobus "Samantha"
Waist.
Whisker:
Cat's whiskers to the east - Mary Jo Bang "In the Quieter Aftermath"
Layers of shivers and whiskers - Kay Ryan "On the Difficulty of Drawing Oneself Up"
Folded close beneath whisker and chin - Joyce Sidman "Shhh! They Are Sleeping"
Wing.
Womb:
Returning to the barren womb of nothing - Robert Blair "The Grave"
That in the womb of Time yet sleep - Fanny Kemble "The Vision of Life"
In the dark womb where I began - John Masefield "C.L.M."
Brooding upon the womb of absence - Robert Pack "Big Bang" [Poetry, January 1988]
Wrist.
Yolk:
Creatures came coated with yolks of myth - Sheikha A. "Nesters"
Yolks needed to bind portraits to walls - R.A. Villanueva "When Doves"
Navigation Links:
Go to author indices.
Go to word indices.
Go to category indices.
A low-pressure system in the abdomen - Amaud Jamaul Johnson "LA Police Chief Daryl Gates Dead at 83"
Afterbirth:
Floating on the currents of afterbirth - Cynthia Hogue "The Changeling"
Shiny with its afterbirth of light - Gregory Orr "Eden and After: To See"
Anatomy:
Her anatomy in irregular stars - B. K. Fischer "Week 30 (Maternity Bathing Suit)"
Don't mistake anatomy for emotion - Lisa Sewell "Letter from a Haunted Room"
Ankle.
Antenna.
Antler.
Arm.
Artery.
Ass.
Back (all usages).
Beak.
Beard.
Belly.
Bile:
Polluted its waters with the bile of my hatred - Frank Horne "Letters Found Near a Suicide" [Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, ed. by Countee Cullen, 1927]
my tongue is bile & tomorrow - Jzl Jmz "Exhibition"
grow bile and peaks of anger - Brandon O'Brien "The Creature from the Black Lagoon Is Your Father"
Powder and shot make men swallow their bile - "The Proclamation" [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, no.CCCXXXIX, v.LV, Jan. 1844]
Bill:
Beaks and bills snap at our eyes - Shantell Powell "Nuliajuk and the Birds" [Strange Horizons 3 March 2025]
Came with strawberry leaves in her bill - Elizabeth Madox Roberts "Babes in the Woods"
Birthmark:
A birthmark with visions to see past illusions - Votey Cheav "When a Kingdom Falls/Shakti's Kisses"
Birthmarks on curved ivory tusks - Cynthia Manick "A Taste of Blue"
Gives up boyhood scars and birthmarks - Lauren Mesa "The Years We Will Know Them" [Poetry, January 1988]
Bladder:
The bladder and the kidney began to quarrel - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Blood.
Bloodstream
Blowhole:
Moonlit blowhole plumes of sound - Brandy Nālani McDougall "This Island on Which I Love You"
Body.
Bone [category].
Bosom.
Bowel:
A thought encased in deep, riverine bowels - Paul Cameron Brown "Reading the Tides: Petroglyph Park"
To warm his bowels with strong potations - Euripedes "The Cyclops" transl. by Michael Wodhull
In the bowels of the concrete monster - Joy Harjo "Hieroglyphic"
Which troubles the bowels of earth - Mrs. A. Ritson "Classical Enigmas"
Brain.
Brainstem:
half minutes of fire in my brainstem - Kaveh Akbar "Against Dying"
Breast.
Brow.
Butt:
Under the florescent butts of night's cigarette - Amber Tamblyn "Epilogue"
Calf:
Nettles seizing at her calves - Caroline Harper New "The Elephant Mother"
Callus.
Capillary:
Pluck apart capillaries to weave my cradle - Sara S. Messenger "Your Subcutaneous Mermaid"
Carapace:
An empire of moss, dead yellow, and carapace - Randall Mann "The Fall of 1992, Gainesville, Florida"
Safe inside our carapaces - Devin Miller "The Malachite Storm"
Inside the carapace of dress - Claire Millikin "The Unpopular Dress"
The beetle with its carapace of sun - Kiki Petrosino "The Child Was in the Woods"
Cartilage:
cartilage sighing apart like petals - Jennifer Mace "Morphology"
Caul:
By dark in the caul of the devil - John Bosworth "A Boy Can Wear a Dress"
Wearing the century's dark caul - Claudia Emerson "Atlas"
Born to trade as to a caul - Lola Ridge "The Ghetto"
Cheek.
Chest.
Chin:
I wear your black cursive on my chin - Yalie Saweda Kamara "Trim"
Folded close beneath whisker and chin - Joyce Sidman "Shhh! They Are Sleeping"
Gather the chin hairs of a man-eating goat - A.E. Stallings "Fairy-tale Logic"
Chrysalis.
Claw.
Cocoon.
Collagen:
Diminished to a hush of keratin and collagen - Lyz Soto "Today I Am Full of Birds"
Not collagen but spite - Wendy Xu "Notes on Sentence Crossing"
Cornea:
Pockets of mist in night's corneas - Sheikha A. "Nesters"
Corpse.
Cortex:
Inside the raw cortex of songs - Joy Harjo "Autobiography"
Countenance:
The countenance of the heart is made better - Nancy Luce "No Comfort"
A glance of wrath upon her countenance - Myron L. Mason "Zenobia" [Graham's Magazine v.XXXIII no.4, Oct. 1848]
The countenance and gestures of Mercy - J. Sylvester "Mercy and Justice" [Mirror of Literature v.13 issue 358, Feb. 1829.]
Craw:
A funeral like a craw full of teeth - Pablo Neruda "Evening LIX" transl. by Stephen Tapscott
Crest.
Cytoplasm:
In the cytoplasm of their cells - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Dendrite:
The dendrite branching of frost on a window pane - Stephen Leggett "Seven Winter Poems"
DNA:
Taught recombinant DNA to recombine - Duane Ackerson "What If"
With a DNA sequence of bullets & blood - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Ear.
Eardrum:
Beating in the sky's eardrum - Deema K. Shehabi "Vista"
Egg/Eggshell.
Elbow.
Embryo:
To will those gossamer embryos into growth - Geffrey Davis "The Epistemology of Rosemary"
Entrails:
Look into the entrails of Uranus - Audre Lorde "A Woman Speaks"
In the darkest entrails of greenness - Pablo Neruda "The South" transl. by Alastair Reid
To the entrails of the earth - Paul Valery "Palme" as translated by May Sarton in 1954
Epithelium:
An epithelium of silence - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Eye.
Eyeball:
With form canine endued, and eyeballs glaring fire - Euripedes "Hecuba" transl. by Michael Wodhull
From her envenomed eyeballs bright the Gorgon thus directs the wound - Euripedes "Hercules Distracted" transl. by Michael Wodhull
Eyebrow:
An eyebrow in the ocean - Rindon Johnson "There Is a Black Fly in Your Chardonnay"
Each change of love in eyelids and eyebrows - Algernon Charles Swinburne "Before Parting"
Eyelash.
Eyelid.
Face.
Fang.
Fat.
Feathers.
Feet/Foot.
Fetal:
Mirror the fetal scroll of fiddlehead ferns - Kimberly Blaeser "Cadastre, Apostle Islands"
Fin:
Replaced by a dark fin cutting out to sea - Duane and Cathy Ackerson "Second Bait"
Thrashing the waves with fins of gold - Roy Campbell "The Porpoise"
A hundred fins in the ocean of my chest - Zilka Joseph "Gourami Fish Tale"
A shattering of murky fins raining into silver scales - Laura Ma "Cradling Fish"
Finger.
Fingernail.
Fingerprint.
Fingertip.
Fist.
Flank.
Fleece.
Flesh.
Forearm:
You drew your visions on my forearm - Amie Whittemore "The Alien Epistles, Letters 1-3"
Forehead.
Freckle.
Fur.
Gall.
Gene/Genetic.
Gill:
Red claws to clutch and gills to gasp - Leah Bobet "Full Fathom Five"
Gills hidden under keloid skin - Rain Prud'homme-Cranford "Gills"
Gland:
This honey-glanded pitcher plant - Jennifer Elise Foerster "Hvmken 11"
Gullet:
Its gullet is full of pennies - Aimee Le "American Poetry/The Age of Hypocrisy, Part II"
Gut.
Hair.
Hand.
Haunch:
The wolf was won by haunch of venison - John Gay "Fable LIX: The Jackall [sic], Leopard, and Beasts" [edited, updated, & adapted by John Benson Rose]
To bite the haunch of some passing perfume - Dean Young "Shamanism 101"
Head.
Heart.
Heartbeat.
Heel.
Hind Leg:
Herds of triceratops lunge up on their hind legs - Kaveh Akbar "The Perfect Poem"
Hip.
Hock:
Train piston for hock & hoof - Brandon Som "Resistors"
Hoof/Hooves.
Horn.
Hump:
a camel with a hump of sticks - Valzhyna Mort "In the Woods of Language, She Collects Beautiful Sticks"
Ichor:
The ichor spilling from this illusion - Lisa M. Bradley "Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas Lost at Sea, 1527"
Polished stones hardened from ichor - Cyree Jarelle Johnson "false sonnet embroidered w/four loko empties"
Blood thins to Gods' ichor - Stephen Oliver "Zionism"
Immune System:
The endless battle between my immune system & embedded phosphorus - Casey Aimer "Body Revolt"
Incisor:
Whose sharp incisors have gnawed many a keel - Thomas Bailey Aldrich "Wyndham Towers"
Innards:
With the innards from an old fashioned clock - G. O. Clark "Mary Has a Prophetic Vision"
Inner Ear:
Shaking grains against the three wired bones of my inner ear - Dean Young "Age of Discovery" [Poetry, January 1988]
Intestine:
Biologists will unspool her empty intestines - Rachel Dillon "A dead whale can feed an entire ecosystem"
Ivory.
Jaw.
Joint.
Keloid:
Gills hidden under keloid skin - Rain Prud'homme-Cranford "Gills"
Keratin:
Diminished to a hush of keratin and collagen - Lyz Soto "Today I Am Full of Birds"
Kidney:
The bladder and the kidney began to quarrel - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Knee.
Knuckle.
Lap.
Larynx:
Silence that deluged the larynx - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
With screens of mourning in their larynx - Oriana Méndez "Farewells" transl. by Erin Moure
Leg.
Ligament:
for how long will the ligaments last - Jarid Arraes "Movement"
Limb.
Lip.
Liver:
With my liver gnawed by mice - Daisy Aldan "The Little Mermaid"
Eat cod liver oil and oatmeal - Lou Barrett "Oliver Hill Hotel: 1932"
A liquor I mix'd with my cod-liver oil - Henry S. Leigh "Songs of the Sick Room No. 1: Cod Liver Oil"
The liver was a prophet - Kristen Tracy "Hepatoscopy"
Loin:
Loins of the lion and splendor of the eagle - William Rose Benét "The City"
In the strong loins of time - Eunice Tietjens "Children of War"
Lungs.
Mandible:
Once smeared on the mandible of a bee - RK Fauth "Playing with Bees"
On the mandible of a bee - RK Fauth "Playing with the Bees"
Bowed mandibles chittering superstitious drivel - Sara Omer "Djinndroid"
Mane:
A horse carries autumn in his mane - Joseph Fasano "Mahler in New York"
One mane of a thousand lions - Lola Ridge "Firehead part VI: The Merchant of Babylon 3: Lullaby"
The whistling mane of every wind - Charles Warren Stoddard "Ave Maria Bells"
Dry the damp on the horse's mane - Judy Patterson Wenzel "Come Shaker Life"
Maw.
Membrane.
Metabolism:
In the overheating metabolism of destiny - John Kinsella "Reptile in Roof Space"
The metabolism of the hidden springs - Tim Newcomb "Ten Minutes South of the Port of Tacoma"
Moustache/Mustache:
Made yourself a mustache of gold - Lou Barrett "Oliver Hill Hotel: 1932"
Twirled his November moustaches - William Carlos Williams "Light Hearted William"
Quietly twirling his green moustaches - William Carlos Williams "Light Hearted William"
Mouth.
Muscle.
Musk:
Sweet with breath of musk - Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall "A Night in Italy"
Live to breath April's musk another day - L. Lamar Wilson "Lauren Oya Olamina Explains Earthseed to Ernest Hemingway"
Neck.
Nerve.
Nerve Ending:
The nerve endings of tendons are fueled by the sun - Rodrigo Toscano "Habilitas"
Nervous System:
Our rightly designated nervous systems - Scott Cairns "Adventures in New Testament Greek: Nous"
Neural/Neuron.
Nose:
Many foes, behind, before, beneath your nose - John Gay "Fable LX: The Degenerate Bees" [edited, updated, & adapted by John Benson Rose]
To leave dog's noses no evidence - KaNikki Jakarta "A Wading"
Powder their noses with pollen - Maurya Simon "Angels"
The nose-down fly on my floorboards - Ari Banias "Tribute"
Nostril:
Black, curdling fog climbing into their nostrils - Tylor James "I Grew Up in a Haunted House"
Inside the nostrils of searchlights - Ilya Kaminsky "Soldiers Aim at Us"
Clamps his nostril and shuts his eye - Sidney Lanier "The Symphony" [Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, June 1875, v.XV]
Because the breath in our nostrils is smoke - "The Wisdom of Solomon 2" [Project Gutenberg. The Wisdom of the Apocrypha. 1910. Ed. by L. Cranmer-Byng and S.A. Kapadia]
Nucleus.
Organ.
Palate:
Burst Joy's grape against his palate - John Keats "Ode on Melancholy"
Palm (body part).
Pancreas:
The thyroid and the pancreas joined the outbreak - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Pate:
The feather pate of folly bears the falling sky - A.E. Housman "A Shropshire Lad XLIX"
Paw.
Pelt.
Physique:
Their red and golden physique of sly heat - Joanne Merriam "First Contact"
Pinion.
Placenta:
To ask the placenta for its numerical origin - Zaina Alsous "To a Young Poet"
Plexus:
Horizontal to vertical, particle to plexus - Mary Jo Bang "The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity"
Plume.
Pore:
Through my pores of stone - Alice Corbin Henderson "From the Stone Age"
Prosthetic:
Prosthetic molded to her mouth - Samantha H. Chung "Time Traveler's Haibun: 2024"
Protein:
all your proteins disassemble - Amy Beeder "My Poisonous Cousin the Pipevine Swallowtail"
Unlimited protein falling from the sky - Keith Taylor "One Species to Mourn"
Between spiraling strands of protein - Keith Taylor "Summer Teaching"
Protoplasm:
A protoplasm for next of kin - James C. Bayles "In the Gloaming"
The protoplasmic source of all things - Mary Hickman "Still Life with Rayfish"
Psyche.
Pulse.
Pupil:
Welled up in your darkened pupil - Johnson Cheu "Wail"
The sparks of the star in her pupils - Thomas Hardy "The Second Night"
The pupil dilated to the wellspring of her soul - Harry Martinson "Aniara 88" transl. by Stephen Klass and Leif Sjöberg
Quill.
Retina:
Through the afterburn on my retinas - Lisa M. Bradley "Una Cancion de Keys"
Limned on the mind's retina - E.O.H. "Dreams" [Graham's Magazine v.XXXIII no.4, Oct. 1848]
Tinging the retina with rays from sky - Mrs. L.H. Sigourney "Laura Bridgman"
Ribosome:
Ribosomes in the scabbard of their maker - Gospel Chinedu "In a Tissue Processing Class the Lecturer Tells the Biafra War Through the Lenses of a Microscope"
Ring Finger:
Dollar bills for his index and ring fingers - Jake Skeets "Drunktown"
Ruff:
Lift the frowsy ruff of owls - Hailey Leithauser "Fever"
Scalp:
I wear their writhing roots across my scalp - Molly Raynor "A Dressed Up Potato Is Still a Potato (Yiddish Proverb)"
Pythons and boa constrictors plucked from a gorgon's scalp - Alyza Taguilaso "Add to Cart"
Seashell.
Shell.
Shoulder.
Sinew.
Skin.
Smile.
Snout:
Of ancient blood devoured by the jaguars' snouts - Pablo Neruda "Guatemala" transl. by Jack Schmitt
Catch the sun upon their snouts - Lola Ridge "Death Ray"
The snouts of the hungry hunting storms - Carl Sandburg "The Windy City"
Sole/Solely.
Spit.
Spleen.
Spoor:
Silting their famished spoor of boots and buttons - Sonya Taaffe "Amitruq Nekyia"
Sternum:
The stone sternum of night - Urayoan Noel "cinquains written during a tropical storm"
Spirits bang on my sternum - Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez "Bomba"
to thread my sternum through to you - Dior J. Stephens "a letter to charlie parker"
Sting.
Stomach.
Sweat.
Synapse:
Lightning leapt from her synapses - Mike Allen "Metarebellion"
Of synapses snapping in your mind - Andrew Sinclair "Queer-Pastoral, Somewhere in the Slipstream"
Syrinx:
But understand the notes through each syrinx - Nickole Brown "Prayer to be Still and Know"
Tail.
Talon.
Taste Bud:
Taste buds adjusting to the taste of hunger - Susan Nguyen "Letter to the Diaspora" p.56
Tear.
Teardrop.
Teeth/Tooth.
Tendon.
Tentacle.
Thorax:
Her thorax full of strange ideas - Leah Komar "Colony Collapse Disorder"
Throat.
Thumb.
Thumbprint.
Thyroid:
The thyroid and the pancreas joined the outbreak - Ishmael Reed "Skin Tight"
Toe.
Toenail:
Talons and toenails claw at our flesh - Shantell Powell "Nuliajuk and the Birds" [Strange Horizons 3 March 2025]
Tongue.
Tonsil:
a tonsil in the mouth of space and time - upfromsumdirt (Ron Davis) "Bleeding The Calf"
Tress:
Paint your tresses with silvered brush - John Philip Bourke "Till Day Is Done"
Strewed their shorn tresses on Scamander's banks - Euripedes "Helen" transl. by Michael Wodhull
With tresses shorn, in concert weep - Euripedes "Hercules Distracted" transl. by Michael Wodhull
The hopvine's tresses sweeping the low roof - Miss Virginia Townsend "The House in the Lane" [The Continental Monthly v.5 no.5, May 1864]
Drowning in the tresses of a darker Lorelei - Humbert Wolfe "Heine's Last Song"
Trunk.
Tusk:
With ragged tusks of anger - Elizabeth Barrett Browning "A Drama of Exile"
A wave with tusks of a boar - Fanny Stearns Davis "Storm Dance"
Birthmarks on curved ivory tusks - Cynthia Manick "A Taste of Blue"
Who parted waters with a glistening tusk - Lola Ridge "Easter Morning"
Umbilical Cord:
terror is the knotty clutch of an umbilical cord - DaMaris B. Hill "Come. Pray. Know"
Underbelly:
The tide with the grainy underbelly of industrial light - Christopher Buckley "Prayer To Escape The East"
Fear and hands, underbelly and blade - Nicole Homer "Underbelly"
Upper Arm:
Two wounds in my upper arm and in my heart - Charles Wright "My Old Clinch Mountain Home"
Vascular:
The vascular trauma of hurt in my blood - Prageeta Sharma "Lateral Violence"
The vascular system of flowering things - Jessica P. Wick "Sap and Superstition"
Vein.
Venom.
Visage.
Viscera:
Visceral commitment to rearrange space - Andrea Abi-Karam "DEAR GABRIELLE"
Knowing that each layer is a viscera of pain - Giorgiomaria Cornelio "La specia storta (The Bent Species)" transl. by Moira Egan
Land in the viscera of night - Elizabeth Rees "Scorched Earth"
Vocal Cords:
The honey I swallow to soothe the vocal cords - Regie Cabico "Morning After the Election"
Voice.
Voice box:
Like a collector of voice boxes - Raymond Antrobus "Samantha"
Waist.
Whisker:
Cat's whiskers to the east - Mary Jo Bang "In the Quieter Aftermath"
Layers of shivers and whiskers - Kay Ryan "On the Difficulty of Drawing Oneself Up"
Folded close beneath whisker and chin - Joyce Sidman "Shhh! They Are Sleeping"
Wing.
Womb:
Returning to the barren womb of nothing - Robert Blair "The Grave"
That in the womb of Time yet sleep - Fanny Kemble "The Vision of Life"
In the dark womb where I began - John Masefield "C.L.M."
Brooding upon the womb of absence - Robert Pack "Big Bang" [Poetry, January 1988]
Wrist.
Yolk:
Creatures came coated with yolks of myth - Sheikha A. "Nesters"
Yolks needed to bind portraits to walls - R.A. Villanueva "When Doves"
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