Merrick’s Skeleton
Rent from DeepDyve- Merrick’s Skeleton
In 1987 newspapers reported that Michael Jackson had offered to buy Joseph Merrick’s skeleton from the London Hospital for half a million dollars.
They say he spoke in a soft,quiet voice, had trouble sayingwhat he meant. He couldn’t travelor walk the street withoutdrawing a crowd, but at night,veiled by a hat and bulky clothes,he walked in the hospital garden,leaning on his nurse’s arm.When he was a teenager, he workedas a freak, made sure the gawkershad to pay. But authoritiesshut down the show, said he putthe public’s health, his humandignity, at risk. In the hospital,there were few surprises,a schedule he understood.With his good hand he built beauty—cardboard churches he gaveas gifts, every crease and foldcrisply aligned. He lovedhis mother who died too young,showed her tiny portraitto his guests. Other womenwere distant, lovely creatures,even when they smiled or spoke.He wanted very much [End Page 138] to be a gentleman and askedfor a dressing case with a comb,brush, razor—all thingshe couldn’t use. His death—suicide or simply a mistake.He tried to sleep lying downlike other people, but his headwas so heavy he couldn’tbreathe. His bonescould belong to no one else. [End Page 139]
Carrie Shipers’s poems have appeared in Connecticut Review, Crab Orchard Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, New England Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of two chapbooks, Ghost-Writing (Pudding House) and Rescue Conditions (Slipstream), and a full-length collection, Ordinary Mourning (ABZ).
