A constellation of bones
Half-sunk in the parched dirt of a walking trail.
A socket here, a joint,
a limb there,
alabaster splinters
arrowed in a visual riddle, wreathed by haphazard sprigs
of dull grass
arranged
in an accidental arena.
Matted fur
caked and camouflaged
in the sepia grains,
tamped down by passerby
for wind to never again comb through sensitive hackles.
Earth will take us back
in an anonymous marrow geometry of macabre die,
cast in prophetic
voodoo ritual.
Stripped to our brittle bleached scaffolding,
slowly swallowed
in her soil skin.
Shucked clean of our carrion, corpses tunneled
by hungry night crawlers
in a benevolent
subterranean banquet.
A meal we spent a lifetime preparing,
this last humbling act
of inanimate charity.
The boomerang
of our discarded jaws,
the teeth inlaid
like tombstones on a wishbone of semi-rictus scythes,
mutely recite
the grim poetry
of one arc of the cycle.
My knee subtly throbs
as I continue
to limp
along the path.
Bruce has been making alternative rap music under the name AllOne for nearly 15 years on the island, performing all over the country, publishing poetry and just generally collaborating and creating and relishing in the weirdo underground community of artists here and everywhere for nearly 2 decades!