From Somewhere Inside
from somewhere inside a creature
small round bone
with a bit of blood and flesh
hip joint
eye socket
a slight cranium
something of this sort
clearly not the soul but who can know
if it would shine or levitate
she found it on her daily rounds
along the fence and the stone wall
hard winter’s truth fallen from the pines
or from the gray owl’s hungry talon
some frozen thing
dug out of the deep snow
she brought it up onto the deck
then began to dance around it
an ancient rite
with sharp cold yelps
rearing up on her hind legs
then taking it in her mouth
flinging it into the air
and dancing a circle
wherever it would land
she would not come in for her favorite
treat nothing store bought could
entice her she went on dancing
and singing until finally
she lay down next to it
nudged it gently
with her black snout
with her big animal eyes watched
the sun flare on the orbit of bone.
GARY BOELHOWER often sails his little sloop Figment on Lake Superior or hikes on the North Country Trail as a prelude to writing poetry, always more prelude than poetry. His poems have appeared in anthologies: Amethyst and Agate, The Heart of All That Is, The Cancer Poetry Project 2, Beloved on the Earth, County Lines, and in journals and magazines: America, Northern Sounds, The Freshwater Review, Lake Superior Magazine, New Millenium Writings, Out of Words, Plainsongs, Shavings, and Willow Review. His recent poetry collections include Naming Rites and Marrow, Muscle, Flight which won the Midwest Book Award.
Twyckenham Notes 