Poetry : 'Bone Memory' by M. Anne Sweet

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ISSN: 1094-2726

Pif Magazine
PMB 248
4820 Yelm Hwy SE
Suite B
Lacey, WA
98503-4903

I handled love the way I handled you,
grey goose.
Your broken back,
swollen hot throb, caressed my hand.
Flapping, you fell,
your once regal wings splayed the ground.

When you lay breath still
I tender towel wrapped your face,
but your struggle weakened my grip.
Fragile hours passed belly flat
before death gathered you.

On this day when I uproot fifteen years,
on this day when I dig through attic compost,
boxing old clothes, books and dust,
burying moldy leather and letters,
my shovel cracks the edge of your beak.
On this day when my blade finds its mark
I remember love's broken back.

M. Anne Sweet is the art director for a magazine about Thoroughbred racehorses. She has read extensively throughout the Puget Sound area as a member of The Seattle Five Plus One. The group has an anthology out from Pig Iron Press (1995, Youngstown, Ohio), titled The Seattle Five Plus One: Poetry.

Sweet has also read individually and with The Daughters of Dementia. In addition to the anthology, my poetry has appeared in Pocketful of Dreams (a book by Denise Linn), Crab Creek Review, PoetsWest, Barefoot Grass Journal, The Equine Image, Washington Thoroughbred, and others. Her performance poem, "Overture and Fugue," has been performed by The Peoples' Theatre at Off-Seattle and Seattle Art Bites.

Sweet is the facilitator for a south Puget Sound reading series called Passion for Poetry. She is also on the board of Musical Experiences, a group dedicated to bringing an appreciation and understanding of classical music to a broad audience in intimate settings.

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