Little Bones
by Stephanie Parent
My Mother, She Killed Me
Outside the cottage is a juniper tree
Where his mother’s bones rest
Beneath branches with leaves like needles
Berries the color of the grayest skies
Inside the cottage, his stepmother stews
In her jealousy
She knows her husband’s heart belongs
To those bones beneath the tree
She sees the loss in his eyes, the color
Of juniper berries
So, she lays a trap
My Father, He Ate Me
Father, Father, why?
From his stepmother he expects cruelty
But from his father he finds ignorance
The greater sin
The father who turns a blind eye
To everything but his own aching heart
The father who doesn’t question
Why the meat tastes so bittersweet
And where his son has gone
My sister Marlene, gathered all my bones
She cries a river of tears
Till the soup needs no salt
Tied them in a silken scarf
Child’s bones
Become bird bones
Hollow enough to float
To fly
Laid them beneath the juniper tree
She knows the power
Of a dead mother’s wish
Alchemy, necromancy
Strange bloom come from blood
And salt
With his hollow bird bones
And his fragile feathers
And his pure, clear voice
The boy speaks the truths
He never could before
The boy born from a wish
Made beneath a juniper tree
A wish of snow
And blood
Death
And love
Outside the cottage is a juniper tree
Where his mother’s bones rest
Beneath branches with leaves like needles
Berries the color of the grayest skies
Inside the cottage, his stepmother stews
In her jealousy
She knows her husband’s heart belongs
To those bones beneath the tree
She sees the loss in his eyes, the color
Of juniper berries
So, she lays a trap
My Father, He Ate Me
Father, Father, why?
From his stepmother he expects cruelty
But from his father he finds ignorance
The greater sin
The father who turns a blind eye
To everything but his own aching heart
The father who doesn’t question
Why the meat tastes so bittersweet
And where his son has gone
My sister Marlene, gathered all my bones
She cries a river of tears
Till the soup needs no salt
Tied them in a silken scarf
Child’s bones
Become bird bones
Hollow enough to float
To fly
Laid them beneath the juniper tree
She knows the power
Of a dead mother’s wish
Alchemy, necromancy
Strange bloom come from blood
And salt
With his hollow bird bones
And his fragile feathers
And his pure, clear voice
The boy speaks the truths
He never could before
The boy born from a wish
Made beneath a juniper tree
A wish of snow
And blood
Death
And love
Stephanie Parent is a graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at USC. Her poetry has been nominated for a Rhysling Award and Best of the Net.