On Facebook
Lucille Lang Day
Who would write, “Hey,
sweetkisses, sugarbones,”
to a stranger? Why not
sugarlips sugarskin sugartits
or even sugartwat? I thought
of The Lovely Bones—that hard
matrix of calcium carbonate
and calcium phosphate woven
with collagenous fibers.
I saw Haversian systems—
bone cells in lacunae
ringing central canals
where blood runs in hot rivers
and nerves twitter with messages—
all invisible unless everything
else is stripped away.
I considered answering,
“Lemonkisses, peppernose,”
but thought better of it. Instead
of his own photo on Facebook,
who would post Edvard Munch’s
The Scream—blood and tongues
of fire in the sky above
a figure ugly as a mummy,
hands pressed to his skull,
mouth a wide open O?
I hit “Delete”: in truth,
I didn’t want to know.
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