Sara Matson's excerpt from Fashion for Graverobbers has been paired with an ensemble from Alexander McQueen's 1996 spring/summer show titled "The Hunger" (inspired by Tony Scott's 1983 erotic horror film of the same name). McQueen's abject and earthly outfit not only includes a jacket of silver wool with red silk lining, but it also features a transparent molded corset housing live worms paired with a red silk skirt adorned with metallic antlers designed by Shaun Leane. Likewise, Matson, alluding to Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977), juxtaposes the violence of nature ("tearaway sky"; "an attempted murder / of crows") with the "earthly stink" of a body confronting its own abject and inescapable mortality. In the end, Matson and McQueen unite flesh and wilderness: a reminder that our flesh will eventually be protein for worms. And the bodies of worms? Protein for birds - the hungry eyes - circling the birdwatchers below.
— Paul Cunningham, Editor
From Fashion for Graverobbers
birdwatching – birbwatchin – wizard app – suggested identity
watching anything via moor-o-vision (the hills have eyes)
intent on finishing this bottle of perfume so i can open another bottle
of the exact same perfume SKIN ACCORD
earthly stink
dewy grass, clear mud, sanitized dust, cloistered neck, dramatic
or + also
unearthly stink
poorly lacquered, handsy, flush lush, unsatisfied, traumatic
or + also
the layers between
cheek + shell
skin + yolk
cotton + plasma
silk + discharge
polyester + mucus
already !
u smell it settling
into the fiber, stubbornly
webbing itself into the cellular structure
of last season’s hay cutting
incorrect suggestion – reboot – accurate photograph
SKIN ACCORD
spice in a clay jar
coffee in a hemp bag
deer pellets in a warm palm
ruptured appendix in elderly abdomen
kitten fur in a wet mouth
finally ! an attempted murder
of crows picking their
dinosaur toes + teeth
rotted ground beneath a tearaway
sky watching the drama fold itself
into my corduroy pocket
chickens are gone – minutes later, we look up
Sara Matson (she/her) is a poet in Chicago and host of the seasonal online reading series Words // Friends. Her microchap, NOSTALGIC FUTURISM, is available from Pity Milk Press and her chapbook Special Features: DVD Poems is availalable from Alien Buddha Press. Find Sara on Instagram @skeletorsmom or Bluesky @saramatson.bsky.social
