There must be more

There must be more

Than skin and bone

Hinged jaws with expensive

Orthodontic straightening

Jewel encrusted skulls

Some bones come with

A good provenance

Or have empty spaces

Where a good smile used to be

When the cost was too great

Or the insurance cover

Less than sure

One moment there is life,

As everything works together

The blood flows

Muscles contract

Bellows work as damn fine instruments

A rib cage is something more

Than a xylophone of rhythm bones

To rattle alongside an ancient

Bone nose-flute,

The next moment there is a bag

Full of broken pieces

With nothing to make them whole

The stories they could tell

Go untold

As the clothes they used to wear

Hang out in charity shops

With a string of barely animated corpses

Haggling over pennies

Complaining about the smell

Of yesterday

The whisper of despair.

Sorrow is tied to coat tails

In memoriam

Without a need for words

To establish meaning

Skeletons need a closet

To come home to

But more than this

Will never be determined

From old bones

That are just pieces

Of this and that

Jagged edged tools

Archaeological curios

Mysterious objet d’art

Without the ties that bound them

To meaning so much more,

Than life

As a collection of connective tissue

And juju drumsticks