The Field Museum Doesn’t Dust The Skeletons

by Timmy Sutton

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after Jade Holder

The dinosaurs got arthritis too
You can still see it on their bones
Between the spiderwebs
We’ve let tangle in the ribs—
You can make a home of any old
Broken thing—just takes
Time and neglect, suddenly
Life spills all over
Everything again—unusable
Tail made unwitting anchor
Swollen bone callous
Holding everything together
Just long enough
To catch another meal flying
To feed another hungry body
To end another small struggle
In the endless litany of small struggles
With tender violence—just enough
To make it to tomorrow
Never enough for rest

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Timmy Sutton is a person who writes, analyzes budgets, and misses his friends and family from Springfield, IL. Some of his stuff is in (or forthcoming from) Taco Bell Quarterly, Drunk Monkeys, Rejection Letters, Ghost City Review, Back Patio Press, The Georgetown Voice, Bossier, and on Button Poetry's youtube channel. You can find him on twitter @timothy_matthan.