Considered Things

The bone you found in your desert
Lay in shattered fragments
Amongst the charcoal, erasers and clay pots
On the chipped milk-paint table in your room

How did that happen?

I accidentally stepped on it.

(glancing down) Of course.

I had said it looked like a mask
Which you had already thought of
(of course)
When you first reached down to take it

But now it's on its way
No longer a hip
No longer a mask
Only two matching bone monocles
(And change)
Waiting a while on your table
To be thought over

Like the found feathers that collect
But never stay

The wings that you studied
Until they were merely dead

The three cow vertebrae
In the yard (by the petrified wood)

The strung together bird bones
You hung above the bed
Until they were mislaid

The cat skull from the forest
(Who we think we might have known)
That slowly lost all his teeth
(Around here somewhere)
Before going his own way

Or the crumbling wasp hive
I pulled down from the tree
(After the blue jay did the dirty work)
That sits out in the shed
In a slow procession of paper flakes
Unmaintained

Even the shells in their box
Chip down to chalk

Once-abandoned things seem
To grind away faster here
Sorted and bumped
Considered and crushed
By constant touch and turning

But really, how long does a shell last
Turning in the wet sand?
Objects unworn by interaction
Escape the notice of the timekeepers
But well-watched pots collect cracks
No matter how quickly they boil

Outside your room
We sweep away hair and dust
Days and weeks
Without marking our own measurement
Our consideration only flickering
Then passing with a breath
Over a tooth left under a pillow