Stapes, Malleus, Incus

Stapes, Malleus, Incus

I listen to my son practice the cranial nerves, spinal anatomy

                the physiologies of the eyes and ears and I think

so little about breathing

the way birds must not think about wings

the way small birds in winter breathe one hundred

      two hundred times to my twenty  I’m not

thinking about prayer as I watch crows shuffle

on the roof of the retirement home across the street

 and I’m not thinking about hearing when

                                 the names of the three small ear bones

                                 sound like a trinity

Jeanie Tomasko