Jennifer Sime

At the End

—After Francisco Goya’s El Perro (c. 1819-1823)

In the darkest room of the Prado

a tired dog lifts its snout above rising water.

It detects the sweet smell of bone, a saint’s relics.

Violet and myrrh. Meat and marrow.

Jennifer Sime is a cultural anthropologist working on a collection of poetry on memory and dictatorship in Galicia (Spain). Her poetry has appeared in the journal Anthropology and

Humanism and is forthcoming as part of an experimental ethnography project, Errant Elements, associated with the Department of Anthropology, UT Austin. She teaches at San Diego Mesa College.