Skeleton of a Whale by Diana Norma Szokolyai

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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.