1.

Some think we make too much
of bones.
You never see them
but after a bad accident
or a battle
or when the years have eaten
everything else men are.

2.

Dogs are an exception.
And armies.
Never too many bones
for them.

3.

I like to think sometimes
of burrowing inside bones
for their dry marrow—
though the bones have to be broken,
and violence still offends
some few of us.

4.

I watched a farmer
put down in a tin plate
a ham for his cats.
I said: Too salty.

Driving home,
I thought again: Marrow.

5.

What bones wear—
now that’s worth your time.
Little girls
with small bones like
a sparrow’s skeleton;
tall girls
with graceful bones
like poplars;
big girls whose bones
are weapons.

6.

When we are old
I imagine your skeleton
anti ...

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