There’s Something about Bones
Doug Paul Case
the neighbor boy used to tell me something
about their tendency to decompose to crumble
into the earth
that made him want
to stumble his fingers over flesh searching
for what would break what his descendants
would one day walk upon until they arrived
in each others’ arms
how they would touch
what would one day be walked upon
he’d never cut into me never touch
beneath the skin no matter how I begged
never whisper this anywhere
but in the rotting house in the stump field
where soon there’d be no trace
no dust
beneath even the roots where the wood
would one day grow for their rotting
houses never whisper this anywhere
but oh how he stumbled
DOUG PAUL CASE works as a salon receptionist in Bloomington, where he recently earned his MFA from Indiana University. His poems have appeared in Salt Hill, Barrow Street, Redivider, and Hobart.