the skeleton's the most articu-late thing there is exceptabout Who made him. It's notgraveyards he rattles in butyou and me; skeletonschase butterflies and do theMonster Mash in the dark infra-redroom of the flesh
startingfrom the grounded arches ofMan's first pedestal theTarsals and Phalanges bonesbaby needs shoes for, notthe ones that get them,keystones for
legs ofconcern to dashers and prancersstylers and milers fencers fandancersromancers advancersand retreaters unsinewed a collectionof bones named afterskillets and safety pins
the Femurthe skeleton's oaktree, in the oldsoon broken least mendedhas little to recommend itin a poem except in the thunderclaptrapof one lowly notch called the Intercondylarand one lordly knob called the Greater Trochanter
while Pelvis itself ugly needs fleshto notify it yet a crown of bonesin the woman the royalcolander drainslife from the seawaters of the uterine cavern
andthe tailbone, Coccyx wellnamed after the cuckooconnects with old jokes of bananapeels but the Pelvisattaches that column of latinthe spine, at the Sacrum
in formeschew connotations oframrod or spinelessness, choosefor symbol the integral,S- shaped, both practical and pleasing; here areintegers stacked likelecture chairs but cushioned in usealways; muscles may atrophy but theselet heads held highglare each other in the eyeand swear
rising out of lumbago country and its youngambassador absorbine juniorthrough thorax the Dorsalsseem to belong to dolphinsrather than the ribcagecalled cavity crammed with vitals
the seven bars of the necknoted for the top two that helpyou nod or shakeso superbly lubricated onlythe heart goes creak
the Hyoid hangs outin this district, a bonewithout visible means of supportsilent and anonymous inthe mugbook of the anatomist
but the arms have apparatus!clefshaped Clavicledoubles the spine's integralover the stave of the Ribs mostgraceful of all bodyspans from Sternum to Scapula aflat plate and the base of wings in angelsarmsocket in Mankind;
the humerus: enough said;
Radius and Ulna are staff and supportfor that fan that pinwheel that unbeachedstarfish the hand: I think of arms raisedlotus columns of Egyptbuttressed by shouldermuscleand finally fingers touching tipsover the Skull, fullcircle from the Phalanges we began with
the Skull's the pontinearch of the pontifex homelyto me, the only one I metin person, as a child my medschoolcousin used a sawed-offskulltop for ashtray I thoughtthe flakes inside were dried remainsof brains, bonepink shocked me readingso much of desert alkali but knewthe concave brainshape volutes cupcortex and arteriole
whenyou put your lefthandfingers into the inter-stices of your right is howthe Frontal fits the Parietalsin the noble Cranium the basedoesn't look that neatbut none the less suffices
theEthmoid takes the weightof the great oracle with its flutes and coilsTemporals remind ushow bound to time we are Zygomaticsgive children those applecheeks leave SphenoidConchae, Palatines all fragile nonetermed ephemeral for
Stapes, Malleus, Incusthe Auditory Ossicles atone poem of their own tell youwhat goes bump in the night, usuallythe kid falling out of bed on hisOcciput
from here the Foramen Magnum opens the doorfrom the brain to the neural telegraphlines strung along the vasculartree in lands I have no visa for
balled in a burlap of triplemembranes the rootybrain's a thing contained and onlycontainer of everything best leftcased under the lock and key of its senses
bridge span arch implytraffic in the complex Iadmire most the Foramina piercingbone where marrow hatching phagocytes knock on the wallarcades where nerve and vein pass throughprovidentiallyand begin to define the flesh
the spirit's limits have their arbitersbut I know where the devilstarts
