Wish Bone


This is not going to work if you don’t open up
she thought
Shame.
Let me in, but you shake your head - no.

This is really not going to happen if you keep closing your lips into an invisible hard line
Fold me your arms like the gathering of white sheets on laundry day
Crisp paper folds in the midsummer scorch.

A dancer’s wrist
A Robin’s tarsometatarsus dressed in fine silver bangles
Snapped across your turkey wish bone
Little fingers wrapped
Winning, winning, winning…
Then crack,
Hollow bone tear in ragged, needle sharp filaments.

Close yourself up
Lock yourself inside a bear trap,
Laid in
A well deeply
Dug by a young boy
In a dark forest
Covered in bracken.
No one knows
Or comprehends what is going on in your special head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryno8zBVDa4 - wishbone Rag

Image wiki commons - Wish Bone Rag 1909 composed by Charlotte Blake





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