THE MUSEUM ISSUE Parris Garnier   Still Life with Bivalve That black spot A knife butt ..............................(or rabbit hole?) An argent stipple the liquor's gleam ..............................that bilious smell, oily meat gagged down ..............................the throat. Pied yellow the sting of lemon ..............................juice on the raw quick under ragged nails ..............................a sour trickle Sotto voce to the fetching docent mortification ..............................deftly rendered, how he taught you to swallow ..............................oysters whole Her derisive glance your smile dashed ..............................with one stroke, a Mona Lisa ..............................grimace Parris Garnier worked as a writer and editor in business consulting for twenty years. His writing can be found in Story Bytes, Mindmills, Rogue Scholars, and Exquisite Corpse, and he has guest edited at Stirring. He has published three chapbooks, Yard Sale, The Long And Short Of It, and Through A Glass Head Darkly, and is writing a novel based on the legend of the steel driver, John Henry. With Christina Wos Donnelly, he is creator and editor of the online literary journal, Not Just Air.   Published in Volume 10, Number 1, Winter 2009.   Read more by this author: Parris Garnier: Wartime Issue