M a r r o w
By L. Jeness

1/11/2023

every day

five days a week

(except when i lie and say i am sick)

i march

to the factory

where we make the stuff

that makes the world go round

(they won’t tell us what it does)

and once a month

like everyone else

they take a bone from me

one bone

cleanly cut

nothing more

and they sew me up

and ask me how i feel

(i say “i’m fine”)

and they grind it up to dust 

it’s beautiful to watch

the white stuff flies up

and we catch it

and sift it

and make it into the stuff

(the stuff that makes the world go round)

but i have a secret 

on the grinder every day

they leave the marrow

mine and my coworkers’

no one seems to notice

so i stay behind every day 

and i lick the grinder clean

it tastes so good

i don’t eat meat

never have

but this.

tearing

scraping

ripping

pulling

chewing

slurping

swallowing

gulping

gasping for breath

i can taste them

sinews and ligaments and muscles and organs and blood and skin and

bone

i

eat

it

all.

it keeps me going

if i didn’t have the marrow i couldn’t march

to the factory

where they take our bones

and use them to make the stuff 

that makes the world go round

i am worried

(i often am)

i am running out of bones

and i

am hungry 

for

marrow.