Skeleton of a Whale A small child wanders Through the skeleton Of a beached whale. Small hands Run along the bone. This moment Will be recalled For a lifetime In photographic exactitude Of the immitigable White marrow, Resplendent in the sunlight And the unabiding gray tide A seagull’s call rips the air, The spill of the bird’s voice Stains the child’s mind The story will be told For two generations Under the boy’s own skull Later that winter, Snow fell on the beach And some whale bones Floated back to sea, To be joined By seaweed, Driftwood, and Barnacles. ©Diana Norma Szokolyai