---
title: "Autopsy"
url: "https://ruthocallaghan.com/poems/autopsy"
updated: 2026-10-12
description: "\"Autopsy\", a poem by Ruth O'Callaghan from A Lope of Time."
---

# Autopsy

…and what of that no longer spoken?\
Will it wait at the crease of each corner\
in a slouch hat, bedraggled raincoat,\
melt into walls, must thickening the air?

Or slip the sash on an unguarded window,\
sidle into alleys less well-lit\
where a grey fox noses through\
the detritus of lives less lived?

Drawn by the clatter of aluminium bins,\
will it stare out over wet gardens,\
a rust of trees – what is that ache\
that comes with rain? – wait for the long dawn

and the cat to carry in the thrush?

_From A Lope of Time (Shoestring Press, 2009)_