The Toronto Star, Saturday, November 30, 1985

    Bare bones future
    Medical schools may be facing a bare bones future,
    thanks to a shortage of skeletons. According to an article
    in The Medical Post, most anatomy skeletons come from
    India and the Indian government has placed a ban on the
    export of human skulls and skeletons. At Queen's University,
    500 students share 300 skeletons, four or five of
    which have to be replaced every year although the head of
    the anatomy department says the students take good care of them.
    Anatomists say it would be extremely hard to duplicate the surface
    details with plastic skeletons but the option may have to be considered.

Paul Cameron Brown

Paul Cameron Brown is a Canadian poet known for his extensive work in both poetry and art criticism. Born in western Canada, Brown has had a prolific career in writing, often intertwining themes of human experience and nature. His works have been showcased in various literary magazines and anthologies. With a style that is both reflective and evocative, he has gained recognition not only in Canada but also internationally.

Paul Cameron Brown

Sixties Hangover

Paul Cameron Brown, Simple Poetry

Bloodcount

Paul Cameron Brown, Simple Poetry

Preening

Paul Cameron Brown, Simple Poetry

Village Idiot

Paul Cameron Brown, Simple Poetry

English

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Point Spread

    The skull in the box is that of Cornelius A. Burleigh, the first man to be hanged in London, Ontario, August 19, 1830. The public hanging attracted an audience of over 3,000 when the village of London numbered only a few hundred. Because the rope broke, he was hanged twice! The top of the skull was taken on a world tour by Dr. O.S. Fowler, a phrenologist.
    This part of the skull was presented to the Harris family.
    (Eldon House brochure)

    Off memory
    & a dare,
    the grave man
    coming to a bitter end.
    Burleigh, top of his
    skull reminiscent of a laundry cup
    (or toothpaste cap) separated from
    its yellowing, rightful owner.
    No jaws of life here -
    rather vengeance beyond death,
    shellac & varnish twist shoved
    ...

Paul Cameron Brown

Kith And Kin

    Once there was a giant
    who lived in a kneecap,
    a peculiar giant at that
    who expelled all reality
    as a pig might a poke.

    Not concerned with the dilemma
    of easing life's toothpaste form
    into dental crustings or
    oblivion's dark shadows
    from lightless paths,
    the giant assumed guardianship
    over his fibro-tissual home.

    The giant could be seen
    ferrying dwarfed bones
    over the inter causal dome
    of flesh and blood.

    At times, he substituted
    a remarkable likeness
    for his kith and kin
    by dumping calloused cushions,
    too long cousins
    of the diaper rash effect
    bunions, corns,
    carbuncles
    eager to roam
    the padlock...

Paul Cameron Brown

The Digging Skeleton

I


In the anatomical plates
displayed on the dusty quays
where many a dry book sleeps
mummified, as in ancient days,


drawings to which the gravity
and skill of some past artist,
despite the gloomy subject
have communicated beauty,


youll see, and it renders those
gruesome mysteries more complete,
flayed men, and skeletons posed,
farm-hands, digging the soil at their feet.



II


Peasants, dour and resigned,
convicts pressed from the grave,
whats the strange harvest, say,
for which you hack the ground,


bending your backbones there,
flexing each fleshless sinew,
what farmers barn must you
labour to fill with such care?


Do you seek to show  by tha...

Charles Baudelaire

Tussaud's

    In the wax museum with Attila and Genghis and Tamerlane all so
    close in spirit with our century.

    At Madame Tussaud's in London: Neill Cream. Burke and Hare. It's
    hard to keep the legitimate heroes straight from the villains. I expect
    Houdini to make this Niagara Falls and appear at midnight
    Halloween.

    With so many real and picturesque notables in abundance, I plan
    the idea of creating my own arch criminal wax museum assembled
    from the hallways and stairwells of my own life.

    I imagine employment counsellors from across the years with sardonic
    laughs and strings tripping off records to make them authentic.
    Then busts of fiendish ex-teachers and hatchet fanatics that
    pass as librarians giving me advanced nausea be...

Paul Cameron Brown

Skeletons Digging

I.

In anatomical designs
That hang about these dusty quays
Where books' cadavers lie and sleep
Like mummies of the ancient times,

Drawings of which the gravity
And the engraver's knowing hand,
Although the theme be less than grand,
Communicate an artistry,

One sees, which renders more intense
The horror and the mystery,
Like field-hands working wearily
Some skeletons and skinless men.


II.

Out of the land you're digging there,
Obedient and woeful drones,
With all the effort of your bones,
Of all your muscles, stripped and bare,

Say, what strange harvest do you farm,
Convicts from the charnel house,
And what contractor hired you out
To fill what farmer's empty barn?

Do you (our dreadfu...

Charles Baudelaire

Old Brompton Road

    1

    "Death is but a sleep"
    quaint rationalization
    even to Revolutionaries.
    Think of Robespierre
    holding his bleeding jaw
    or Marat outside -
    eyeing the inscription,
    scofula no longer distracting while
    tepidly emptying bath water.

    2
    Dreams, poetry of painting,
    deathly pastel shades alongside
    granite canyons
    entwined with rosebuds and leaves -
    bone horseshoes clanking in the dark.

    3
    Catch basin, drainage ditch
    upon which the raspberry
    parts its tendrils and
    human remains, the loathing
    of the living ("not dead yet...."
    ...appropriate obscenity:)
    scrawled on one Victorian
    mortuary, windows knocked out,
    ...

Paul Cameron Brown