Architecture

“Grisly, foul, and terrific
is the speech of bones”
— Donald Hall

Brittle and dry,
white and empty
of marrow – bones
cook in a desert sun.

Molecules in the heat
crack wide open,
atoms spill out onto sand
a fine powder once alive.

Vestige of frame,
purpose of structure,
crumbles and flakes
layer after layer.

Over what was once coyote, wind
thunders through skull cavities,
howls a vox phasmatis.

© 2011, Shawn Pavey
Previously published in Cant.