The Human Skeleton

I am 5’6”, 43 pounds thick; a stick figure at war with gravity. Balloon lungs, eyes of the sun, I walk at the edge of death, Alive! Life burning in me! Pack me, store me, I’ll slip into your purse, Inside your pocket, onto your eyelids, dancing! I am everywhere at once! Alive! Life burning in me! Around my neck: A vile of sweet milk, my only anchor to this world. Around my arms, my tribe of freaks: Fat man, bearded lady, cyclops; Freaks, strangers, lovers, made of all that is broken in this world. Together, caught stapled to our circus thrones, We swim in a sea of orbiting eyes; Lift me with your grin! Catch me in the updraft of your laughter! Bathe me in applause! And though the blackest of nights tiptoes ever closer, And a profound lethargy gathers gently in the background, This pyramid of bones will live on forever in your history books, And the life, burning in me come careening from the page to say: Step right up folks, step right up! Feast your eyes upon nature’s strangest phenomenon: The Human Skeleton! 6/24/2015 Jacob Reinhardt