Summary

In “Long Pig” the speaker tells the reader to take care of the body they have and to treat it well. They go on to talk about the bodies of various animals, such as birds who have feathers and cannot fly, but still “cherish/their flesh bathing it in sand or snow” (43). The speaker also believes “every animal longs to be bare” (43). They contemplate the universal moment of surprise whenever a being sees itself for the first time. They conclude the poem with a dream in which they are “a cannibal eating long pig/in a strange unmappable country” (43). This dream seeps into their daily life, where they “stay a throb/of hunger” (43).

“Being in This World Makes Me Feel Like a Time Traveler” is yet another meditation on hunger and desire. “Being anywhere makes me thirsty,” the speaker says in the first...