Once upon a war,
 
boys’ blood and bones, guts and gore—
 
what was it all for?

 
 
 

at the duck pond’s edge
 
on an autumn afternoon
 
feathers, blood, and bones

Ascetic

 
 
 

mountain ascetic—
 
no sweater, but a sutra
 
warming his old bones

Dog

 
 

An old dog nestles
 
in a pile of autumn leaves,
 
comforting his bones.

Sunless

 
 
 

first week of the year—
 
after all these sunless days
 
a chill in my bones

Warm

 
 
 

tattered quilt
 
cannot warm my bones
 
one more night

Cur

 
 
 

in the same tight curl
 
so familiar to his bones
 
yellow cur sleeping

Rebozo

 
 
 

after forty years
 
the threadbare blue rebozo
 
barely warms her bones

Foxes

 
 
 

what the foxes know
 
in their fur and fangs and bones—
 
feral purity

Warpath

 
 
 

an ancient pathway
 
littered with the bleaching bones
 
of hapless children