Poem: Jawbone On The Beach

 

Jawbone On The Beach

 

askance on a cracked whelk,

spiky molars that leer,

and a little white cuspid gleam 

of scythes.

 

plucked from a skeleton

as sure as wind drops fruit,

now an aimless bit of barracuda

on a wet-gray slab.

 

a beachcomber  

will find a backscratcher,

or a poet might mistake it

for a fanged moon.

 

perhaps it will rise again,

haggard as a hawk wing,

ecstatic in the palm of a child

or spirit-dancer.

==============================