2005 - Vol. 2, Issue 6

the x–rays hang before her,
judge and jury, sentencing her
without defense. the doctor points,
lumbar vertebrae, sacral vertebrae,
his finger slides across the grainy image
nothing is ever black and white
blurs into grey, the edges erased,
swallowed by the darkness
thoracic vertebrae, ribs, sternum
the bones melt into each other
fading into nothingness

she studies the skeleton's diagram before her,
traces her finger against the sharply defined edges,
clear demarcations between what is and isn't.
she rolls the words in her mouth,
ilium, tibia, patella
their letters scrape against her tongue,
like sandpaper
until the taste of iron
floods her mouth.
sharp edges, points that prod,
prickly and ticklish
zygomatic, lacrimal.
she skitters away, but cannot stay,
maxilla, sacrum, fibula,
drawn by the rhythm and beat,
she crams them in until
they stick in her mouth
thick and chewy.
metatarsus, sphenoid, manubrium,

bizarre and bewildering,
the words taste unlike anything
she ever sampled
dark and earthy,
ulna, tarsus, scapula.
the outsides brittle and thin,
crunchy shells
snap between her teeth,
sternum, metacarpus,
break into splinters
that pierce,
drill deep into the darkness.

inside the hollow, she tastes life,
salty and sweet,
a warm spicy scent floats in the air,
mandible, gladiolus, humerus,
with a single taste she knows
this is her manna.
she will never have enough,
mastoid, occipital, radius,
never unlock the secret wrapped
in this brittle, rigid shell,
its marble surface pearly.

she must thread her way past
splinters and edges, sharp
points that snatch and grab,
trying to stop the invasion.
phalanges, parietal, metacarpus
but she's blinded by the glow,
the heat that burrows deep
within the hollow of the marrow.