"A decorative, fluted paper "sock" that is slipped over a protruding meat bone, such as in a crown roast."

 

[This from The New Food Lover's Companion, 3rd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst, published by Barron's Educational Series, Inc., though I found it in many cookbooks.] The frill is also sometimes called a papillote, which is lovely, not only because of the relationship between papillote and papillon (French for butterfly, which the online Webster's--I am in transit and dictionary-less at present--gives as etymology for papillote), but also because to bake something en papillote is to cook food prepared by wrapping it inside paper, which steams it. From the same book: "At the table, the paper is slit and peeled back to reveal the food."

 

So in cooking, as well as Shade Shaving, slitting the paper/skin releases something--a meal, a poem--but for Shade, at the risk of life and limb, if we take seriously the "gory mess." Shaving as a dangerous path to the muse, perhaps, with a hint of self-butchery and suicide lurking. More literally, the nicks and slices can be seen as creating a frilled collar, as worn by meat AND lizards.

 

Why the Newport? Newport is a common name for a cut of steak, the tri-tip or bottom sirloin. For beef enthusiasts, here's a web discussion of what qualifies as a Newport steak, how much it should cost, and how to cook it:

 

 

For me, the butcher-block image of a cut of meat dressed up with frill keeps the image disturbing yet somehow funny, and lines it up tonally with what comes before and after.

 

Andrea