my mother once saw a red-tailed hawk
dive into our backyard
catching a smaller bird to eat

it’s spine, pubis, and left femur
I found two weeks later
half buried
under the flower bed

Cleaning animal bones/skeletons by leaving them in a controlled rotting state. This is usually done by putting them in containers filled with warm water, at a stabilized temperature to be left for days

Bone maceration;

three months later
I buried something of my own
in it’s spot



Three months after that
I dug it back up

I Learned How to Dig

bending down on one knee
using the other for leverage

wearing gloves only sometimes
but getting splinters from the garden shovel when you don’t

folding forward
chin tucked
head down



moving away mulch with your
hands

until soil starts to show






using hands or

shovel or

shoe
to remove the ground



standing to rid yourself
of tool and glove
hands centered

outward from the chest
clasping

slowly tracing your left hand
along your right

moving up the arm as it moves
outward.



your right arm swings out
slowly still either by
the force of the left

or through ritual motion

your left hand makes its way to the shoulder
then across the chest
it traces along its own arm now

swinging out
slowly still

now both arms are wide



hands open

body accepting

a year later and I still have dirt
in my hands

lingering



do I muddy everything I touch
with these
hot, stained fingers?


does the trace of that dig get

larger through each interaction
or smaller as it leaves my body?







does it leave at all?

Molly Wasielewski