Here is the girl's head like an exhumed gourd. br Oval-faced, prune-skinned, prune-stones for teeth. br br They unswaddled the wet fern of her hair br And made an exhibition of its coil, br Let the air at her leathery beauty. br Pash of tallow, perishable treasure: br Her broken nose is dark as a turf clod, br Her eyeholes blank as pools in the old workings. br Diodorus Siculus confessed br His gradual ease with the likes of this: br Murdered, forgotten, nameless, terrible br Beheaded girl, outstaring axe br And beatification, outstaring br What had begun to feel like reverence.