Day 4: '40 Until 40' Skeleton
One of my favourite photos today with a side note about human composting
‘40 Until 40’ is a poetry project to keep me creative over the forty days that lead up to my big 4-0 birthday. A gift to myself of time to write in the whirlwind of new motherhood. Each day I choose a 35mm photo I have taken over the last decade and see what words want to be with it. Process wise I’m open to whatever works on a given day, but I have some new methods I’m keen to try so let’s see where they lead me…
Day 4
The Photo
This is one of my favourite 35mm I’ve taken but strangely I have no memory of it. I didn’t actually get the films processed until last year, so this picture is probably from 6 years ago. There were quite a few on that roll that I couldn’t place but I think it might be from a shop in London, judging by what pictures were taken around the same time.
I’m hoping I knew at the time how much the sunlight hitting the skeleton would lend itself to the black and white film and that the old, wire bird cages with a floating Pinocchio puppet in the background, would make the photograph so creepy. It’s always a bit hit and miss with my old Olympus Trip camera but occasionally you get a gem.
The Poem
The Process
I started with the image first this time, as I knew I wanted to include this eerie junk shop skeleton in the project. I had a think about how we end up (if buried) as a skeleton for the rest of time on earth and what is missing in that instance. I felt listing these parts with their universally recognised human action or behaviour, would highlight the starkness of what our aliveness is eventually reduced to.
I don’t rhyme poetry often. My fiancé Joe always jokes with me when I share with him something I’m working on — “But it doesn’t rhyme”. So he has enjoyed this one I’m sure! The cadence and rhythm has to be right with rhyming poetry, I hate nothing more than a clunky read because of the need to rhyme. I spent ages working on syllable count — adding them in, then taking them out. I’m not 100% happy with it as it reads but when spoken the pace seems right.
I purposefully didn’t use any punctuation, save for the speech quote to give a sense of emptiness and nothing connecting the ‘bones’ of the poem together, much like a skeleton.
I’m endlessly intrigued by life and equally death. I’m a Libra but have a Scorpio stellium (3 or more planets) in my birth chart, including the big hitters of rising sign and moon sign, so I’m sure this is where I get my curiosities from. I remember as part of my midwifery course, we visited an undertaker and I was asking so many questions, it felt like maybe I should of picked that as a career instead. Who knows, maybe that’s a past life echo?
When it comes to my own death, I’ve always wanted to have a green burial but I discovered a fascinating even greener option for your body when the time comes, that is taking off in America.
Recompose are the leaders in the ecological process of ‘human composting’ which is the most climate friendly way to be dead. In being buried, I wanted to be returned to the earth so it makes sense to just speed that process up. In 8-12 weeks you can be transformed into soil. How amazing is that?! Unfortunately the laws in the UK currently prevent this from being a viable choice, but maybe my mid-life crusade is to try and change that because I’d love for this revolutionary method of death care to become the norm.
There is, of course, just the issue of the £2 billion a year funeral industry it would disrupt…
My writing is free to access but if you wanted to show a small sign of appreciation, hot drinks on maternity leave are always welcome!
Jade x