………. think of all the ribs in the world,
the boney cages of hearts,
the breastplates of feelings
that walk upon femurs and feet
………. there are billions
………. have been billions:
………. all the ulnas and metatarsals,
the articulating snakes of vertebrae
which bent under loads or, by luck,
were never bent, never knew loads,
………. all the open or fisted knuckles,
………. the funnybones of elbows
which never had reason to smile
or which did, but refused,
………. the masticating jawbones
and those whose mastications were
mortally few,
………. all knees never bent for right reasons
but went down before demagogues,
………. and the skulls — all the skulls
arrayed in deserts of stones empty as hate
crammed with lethal ordinance, explosive,
thoughts dangerously lonely, looney, alone,
set to misfire and devastate, aimed
to smash the cages of hearts
—to break hearts and
splinter bones
Jim Culleny
5/3/20
Blink 