A Tale of the Hemlock, 2022, handmade artist book, hemlock bark and ash ink on hand-bound Stonehenge paper

A Tale of the Hemlock, a book by Noah S. Thompson (2022)

The bleeding heart is echoed in skin

flesh laid bare in the bleach-bright sun

Fragments of memory, protection, foundation, stripped

Bonded with hide, a chimera of the forest

Lives, miles away, carried across iron-barred land

United in death through the song of their skin

Writing our stories on blanched flesh

Pulped wisdom of giants

Crushed, burned, cut, turned to stone or translucent bone

Shadows of the former self, unmade and bathed in sap

Sanctified, born anew through a slow, seeping, creeping death.