Littering Poems – The Flesh and Bone People

Littering Poems – The Flesh and Bone People

As littering poems go, The Flesh and Bone People is a reflection on fragmentation and the need for integration as individuals and communities.

The Flesh and Bone People – Littering Poems

On a sill at dawn,
 when a flock of flesh and bone people
 are bowing out still,
 
a bird's sharp beak beckons and
 pecks a sesame seed the wind
 barrelled up from the burger joint
 
one mile down the road. The wind
 is kind like that, bowling rubbish
 to places where birds can feast. 
 
The litterers feed them, too, 
 ghosts anchoring in leftovers
 and harking back to flesh and bones,
 
hunger-jerked. Once, the ghosts
 plenished the shell. Now, we tan
 our skin, locked out and rootless
 
until the wick frays and the house
 comes tumbling. Jigsaw pieces 
 strewn, only a gloved, slow hand can
 
unpuzzle them now, sew, set, mend and
 blend our ghost with flesh and bone,
 traversing lollipops, taxes, beads,
 
scaffolding, and chains until, toil
 and oil no longer spoil the soil, 
 until the hour is ours. 

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