My Skeleton by Michael Penny

Poem title: My Skeleton

Poet name: Michael Penny

Poem: walks in the middle

of my body, easy in its knowledge

it will outlive me.

 

This makes it inflexible,

even hard on the muscles

which cling to it.

 

It doesn’t know

there are parts it doesn’t cage,

a beating heart truly untouched by it.

 

Yes, it cups my brain and its high

electric notions but a container

is not as important as what it contains.

 

My skeleton would like to leave now,

make its own clattering way in the world

but I am too possessive, too attached to let it go.

End of poem.

Credits and bio: Copyright © Michael Penny

Previously published in My Chimera, (Buschek Books, 2006).

Michael Penny has published five books and in over forty journals in six countries. He lives on an island near Vancouver and pursues his interest in land use planning as a volunteer on the island’s Advisory Planning Commission