The Bluestone Review 2025

The Bluestone Review

The Bone Picker Lisa Underwood

“Every grave holds a reason.” –from Asian Figures, trans. by W.S. Merwin Found objects she says for the hundredth-odd time As shoppers examine her wares Standing there staring amazed at the sight Of the dead things she brings back to life: Bones sifted like gold from a sludge of decay Picked to perfection they shine Like the dreamscapes she makes In her mind. But how to enlighten inquisitive souls? She searches for words to explain The sweet music that plays when she starts to arrange The detritus of death into life– How she coaxes a song from a finch’s slack jaws A hiss from this snake vertebrae– So she picks up a jawbone and slays us with this: Does life imitate art, or art imitate life? (Either way, I’m buying–)

I cup my deaf ear and my head explodes With the singing of small split skulls.

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