The Word: Bare Bones

The Word: Written exclusively for METRO

Image credit: Courtesy Melissa Wray

Recommended by the Editor

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By: Melissa Wray |   December 2011   |  From the print edition

Editor's note: Each issue, METRO asks a talented local writer to submit a piece for "The Word." The December submission comes from Melissa Wray, a poet, freelancer and co-founder of hazelandwren.com, an online community for literary conspirators and mischief makers. She lives in Minneapolis. 

I come to you,
my mouth spilling
its intestinal 
thoughts, 
a rushing flood
of verbose stomach-ulcers

You sit silently,
listening with old-soul ears,
sniffing 
at my fleshy verbiage
steaming 
on the floor

Without a word, you reach 
inside my mouth
and grab 
the bare bones
of my burden,

bones that rattle 
in protest, reverberating 
to my marrow,
and when you finally
yank them free

I breathe