Larry D. Thomas

L a r r y   D .   T h o m a s

B O N E S 

are an off-white erector set 

of weird metal, messy, 

but only temporarily, 

with sinew and flesh. 

They’re soft in babies, 

brittle in old women, 

and rattle after death, 

dangling from the fingers 

and thumb of the anatomy 

professor. O’Keeffe 

made pigment permanent 

paring it down to bone.