Oppossum: Deceased May 7th 2007

Damien Hirst - Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purposes of Understanding (1991)

Damien Hirst's glass tanks famously explore the physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living. His scientifically organic preparations attract us like flies or children to roadkill - a fascination that wrinkles dangerous with age and somehow fades away. But tucked deep in the lush arboretum, about a half mile down a windy trail marked "Do Not Enter", exists a poignant local rival in the form of an above-ground animal graveyard [exact location in the Gallistel Woods].

Fresh animal specimens in various levels of decay lay protected from predators under broad metal screens tacked down with makeshift stakes. Each of the deceased is carefully marked with a tag detailing its demise, the latest explaining... Opossum: Roadkill - May 7th, 2007. Small creamy maggots ooze out of its furry eye socket and collectively make the sound of digestion itself. Whoever constructed this hidden shrine knew that is the sound we usually bury. It brings death to life with an real intimacy that's absent while reading the obituaries, where goofy posed smiles just seem out of place atop the little one-inch squares of decaying flesh.

Loney, Dear - A Few Good Men (mp3)