,

bones carry me
activate me 
bend me

like a machine 
	i am a mobile wonder-wanderer 
		i celebrate movement

bones rest into silent stillness
		stillness that lasts for short spurts
	like a mis-guided brain-bone 
still there-somewhere
 		i ask it 
		if it feels
		anything

I cannot allow the bone to behave badly
	not my brain-bone
			a precious organ no bigotry or behemoth battles
				will challenge a brain-bone
			ask the brain-bone if its 
				okay
		it will tell you … it is honest 
			beyond 
			any 
			white lie 
			it ever heard

even the moon will tell you it studies brain-bone
 			the sea says
			all that salt 
			will cure a bone, 
			same as healing a wound

i heard the moon croon 
	over the brain-bone. It was sad 
		like imagined gloom
then the moon talked about marrow, 
	blood cells
		white red 
				all flowing and life-giving
							a home for the brain-bone

	when its at rest it still flows
				It needs the bone- 
				its rigidity needs the brain
all the marrow 
				yep
 ask the brain-bone if its okay, 
		ask the moon too 
				it will tell you  
					it trusts brain bone body
		miracle of movement  
				brain-bone body can run 
		    			 run like a freight train 
why do I care?  
it’s a restoration plan  
	a brain-bone body’s finesse 
			simply put
				 was Jack’s request.

Linda Bratcher Wlodyka is the Massachusetts, Beat Poet Laureate, 2023-2025. In 2020 Linda retired as an educator from Mt. Greylock Regional School District in Williamstown . If Brambles Were Bookends, Collected Poems, is Linda’s first full length poetry collection, published by Human Error Publishing and released September 2023.