Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.
What They Made from Its Bones
Buttons, of course. Dagger handles. Letter openers.
Hairpins, combs. Blemish powders to cover moles.
Clasps, stays, grommets, bobbins, brooches, splints.
Rattles, plectrums, rosary beads, and at least one
reliquary for a splinter of the cross. Cribbage
pegs, concertina keys, teething rings, teeth.
Sealing wax. Fertilizer for cabbages. Kings,
queens, bishops, knights, rooks, pawns. Whipstocks,
aphrodisiacs, laxatives. Pipe stems, crossbow ticklers . . .
An extinction so thorough, we find no remains
of the bird itself; only relics of a vanished settlement,
preserved for us in glass museum cases.
William Wenthe is the author of four poetry collections, most recently God’s Foolishness (Louisiana State University Press, 2016). His poems have recently appeared in The Threepenny Review, Bellingham Review, AGNI, The Georgia Review, and The Southern Review. He has received two Pushcart Prizes as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts. He teaches in the graduate program at Texas Tech University. (updated 10/2021)