Oxyntomodulin Overdose

When I die donate my body

to nature, let me rest as a seed

on dew-dipped blades, let me

lie solitary until the pioneer flies

discover me. Pulsing atop my lips,

Muscidae fight Calliphoridae, who

gets to glide across my tongue,

the blowfly inhabits my breath

long-decomposed and protects

what dead remains. Let me be

an ecosystem, let me nurture. I

will birth larvae like acne. One

day some gravid fly will wander

her way into my womb, replace

my eggs with hers, a surrogate

gestation, Let Bacillus, like pesticide,

diffuse throughout my body,

displace my corporeal bacteria,

offer my recyclables to colonies

of cotton or cabbage seedlings.

Bacillus will ignore that blowfly’s

baby so beetles, initially infatuated

by my putrid perfume, but

confusing fly’s progesterone

for estrogen, abandon their rove

and settle into my tough rind

until, gluttoned by my decayed

flesh, find umami instead in newly

ripe larva, chew it up, leave their own

in its place. Tardy beetles, Dermestidae

or Cleridae, shuck my individual

layers deliberately, slowly, savor

each bite, reward for carrying

so many mites on their backs,

practicing praegustators, food

tasters. Take my milk, let me

wither, my hollow skeleton

a labyrinth, my pelvis a grotto

peopled by maggots, finally

consummate for new families

of flies to pick me clean,

communion with the mites

and their beetles leftover, sheen

so immaculate Tineid moths

will be seduced by my bones

and attempt to free my skull

from my final shroud, the curtain

of hair knotted, a nesting ground.

Some wasps poach the pupae

of the blowfly, repopulate it

with their own and I will not

nourish this new incubation

like I did for the Calliphoridae,

for these eggs will devour

the pupa instead. The mole

on my shin, the distilled birthmark

beneath my buttock are in some

other faunas’ bellies. Let me be

their carcass, my rot will release

pheromones, entice carrion

organisms to my untouched, unwrap

what skin still clings, caress my organs,

consume my blood-secreting heart,

but leave my womb. I will be their

compost, symbiosis, my body will beget

their eggs, I will foster their children.