LISTENING TO MY BONES<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When the doctor holds my upper arm in his two hands,
\nhe bows his head and listens as if he were waiting to hear
\nthe song of a rare endemic bird no one has seen for centuries.
\nI start to speak, but he shakes his head, does not loosen his grip
\non my arm, turns his fingers around the curve
\nof my skin and listens again.
\nI am afraid to clear my throat. My toes stay still.
\nHe must hear my heart where it beats
\nbut he is listening to the sound of bones
\nthe way NASA turns its telescopes far over our heads on Mauna Kea
\nand hears the universe move.<\/p>\n
Rain falls so hard on the roof, I think it might break through.
\nImagine all those luminous drops that had been the backbone
\nof a cloud shattered and lying above the orthopedic surgeon\u2019s head
\nand mine. Soon a puddle, then a trickle into the Wailuku River.
\nThis will mend well, he says, shows me two x-rays.
\nIn the waiting room is a large salt water tank. A zebra moray eel
\nfolds in one corner its brown and white stripes.
\nI think how it must have no bones at all
\nor bones so light this eel can wind
\naround its heaven all night when everyone has left
\nand dream the dream of breaking into the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Listening to my Bones” is reprinted from The Southern Review.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joan Swift<\/a> has published four full-length books of poems, the two most recent both winners of the Washington State Governors Award.\u00a0 Her most recent poetry collection<\/a> is the chapbook Snow on A Crocus, Formalities of a Neonaticide<\/em>, 2010.<\/a>\u00a0 Swift\u2019s poems have appeared in The Yale Review, Poetry, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Puerto del Sol, DoubleTake, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review<\/em> and dozens of others.\u00a0 Among the awards she has been granted are three National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, an Ingram Merrill writing award, a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission, and a\u00a0 Pushcart Prize.\u00a0 After graduating from Duke, she earned an M.A. at the University ofWashington where she was a student in Theodore Roethke\u2019s last class. She lives and writes in Edmonds,Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LISTENING TO MY BONES When the doctor holds my upper arm in his two hands, he bows his head and listens as if he were waiting to hear the song of a rare endemic bird no one has seen … Continue reading