I Tried To Use Up All His Bones

I tried to use up all his bones
To build a home, a house of one’s own
His sacrum served as my home’s foundation
Clavicle and cranium: my adoration
I soaked his femurs in cedar stain
I stacked his ribs, built walls, a membrane
I wove his tarsals throughout my trim
I used his pelvis to cement him in
I tried to use up all his bones
I prodded and poked…I must atone!
His bones were white (I knew they’d be)
His bones were strong (just perfect for me)
And yet…after crumbling down one day
Sans faint or sigh, nothing left to say
I gathered my rake and shovel to work
I broke my back, dear god it hurts
Alas, he left me a dreary mess
Though I mustn’t weep, I must confess:
The day I built a house of bone
Was the day that I had turned to stone

Mikayla Beaudrie completed her MA in English from the University of Florida. She currently teaches an array of rhetoric and composition courses at the University of North Florida. Her research centers on the relationship between blackness and nature, and the existence of a Black gothic rhetoric.