how to train a cadaver dog
man outside the black door saying
‘many of you will die' meaning
Photo by Sasha Hails
ridiculously
not his people, those who built him
this complex electronic
nose, not them
e-sensing the population,
training dogs
to detect just 15mg of human
tissue, blood or bone
there are companies
to help with this now. perfume:
Pseudo Corpse Scent Formulation I,
for early detection, or below 0 degrees celsius.
at the water’s edge them veering
newly, awkwardly, cruel-to-be
-kindly away from one another—
us too. two metres is 17.5% longer
than the national human stature.
so ‘stay at home' for lack, among
data, of these more important
machines, my god
the iron lung / that loves me,
pumps my two / dust bags
in and out—and don’t let
strangers touch our dog, the family
dog, who is immune
but how we press our face to his!
these were the new house rules.
that day in the gorse, at the water’s
edge, laying
longer than ourselves
between ourselves.
Pseudo Corpse Scent Formulation II,
for post-putrefaction detection.
so he’s a big man is he. unskilled,
anathema. saying leave and stay
interchangeably, our language
flattened, before all else, against
that door. most vultures will not
register a creature as edible
unless mercaptan is present
in quantities equivalent with death.
so pick a unit, stick with it,
breathe for all six sets of lungs—
who got here in time.
who wasn’t on a ward, or lying
bonnie and flightless over
-oceans. our video loves.
Pseudo Corpse Scent Drowned Victim Scent,
scent source for 30 to 45 minutes, in still or running
water, at depths of 1-12 feet.
that last day
by the water, our dog
ate a jellyfish. he was fine.
unlike this, and contrary to popular
belief, the portuguese man-o-war
is not a singular organism. ‘colonial’,
it’s called; ‘siphonophore’, the latter
a favourite word from
childhood, hoarded. and how
they hang together! attached
to one another, and physiologically
integrated, to the extent that
they cannot survive independently.
indole, putrescine, cadaverine,
skatole—at last
us land-locked
with buzzards overhead.
that reek.