The tepid carca** examinately reclines on my table Its peculiar muscular activity, rigor mortis, works in my favor Determining PMI through rigid, bone-cracking means Postmortem rigidity occurs through the depletion of ATP... Adenosine triphosphate is required for muscle relaxation But metabolic activity continues after d**h and creates a reaction Lactid acid is spent and exhausts the store of glycogen Muscles go hard from the abnormal links between actin and myosin... This maturating stiff... Becomes quite stiff... Positioning the corpse can be quite a Herculean task As I bend the crepitating unmalleable limbs with revolting cracks Obstinate appendages stubbornly give way under my dragoon efforts My aching muscles are overtaxed and pushed well pa**ed discomfort... ...Paralytic legs, unflexing arms... ...Carrion with all its frozen charm... ...Unmoving torso, intractable neck... ...Deplorable corpse a total wreck... Between 2 and 12 hours is the solidifying time required For abductors and adductors to become unyieldingly mired It will take a day for outstretched extremities to acquiesce Finally amenable to my adroit limb-wrenching finesse... The lampooning hu-mannequin's muscle proteins are devoured As the taciturn body achieves maximal rigor in 12 hours 12 hours more and the muscular fiber grudgingly give way When the proteolytic enzymes in the lysosomes of muscle cells escape... ...Corpse piquantly olid... ...Now maceratedly flaccid... Barring rare cadaveric spasms, a PMI timeline can be mapped Factor in environmental variables and the effects they can have Ripening malodorous remains can speak from the grave And tell us their time of d**h by how their muscles behave... ...Paralytic legs, unflexing arms... ...Carrion with all its frozen charm... ...Unmoving torso, intractable neck... ...Deplorable corpse a total wreck...