Introducing a new series of poems by Julian Matthews. Julian is a writer and Pushcart-nominated poet published in The American Journal of Poetry, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Borderless Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Dream Catcher Magazine, Live Encounters Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and The New Verse News, among others. He is a mixed-race minority from Malaysia and lived in Ipoh for seven years. Currently based in Petaling Jaya, he is a media trainer and consultant for senior management of multinationals on Effective Media Relations, Social Media and Crisis Communications. He was formerly a journalist with The Star and Nikkei Business Publications Inc
Link: https://linktr.ee/julianmatthews
By Julian Matthews
Dear Human,
Hey, you! Did you forget us? We’re still in here you know. Still holding things together. We know you’ve been feeling a little brittle, lately. It’s been awhile since you cracked one of us up. It’s not funny when it does happen though. But we mend quick. Unlike your broken Heart. By the way, that’s a misnomer. Hearts don’t break. We should know, we have an intimate knowledge of yours. Yes, they have emotions, they hurt, they grieve at losses, they grow weary from the grind of daily living; they pound a little harder now and then from joy, pain and co-dependent loving.
But they never split, snap, sunder. Breaking is our department, and when it comes to the heart, we gotcha. Hearts may sink a little lower now and then. But our brother Sternum lifts them up, so never fear. They’re safe in brother Rib Cage, working together with Cartilage. “Cage” is a misnomer too for sure. No Nicolas is gonna show up to bust you out of this island.
Your Heart is not a prisoner of ours, and certainly neither are your Lungs. They beat and breathe for you, liberate your very existence. They have ever since shortly after your conception. Our Ribs aren’t prison bars, either, you know. We are connectors, not incarcerators. You always seek connections outside of you, yet think of us as the connections within. The 206 of us working in tandem, with ligaments, muscles and tendons, to keep you framed.
Not that definition of “framed” either. You weren’t fixed up, and we’re not, I repeat, your jailors. (Though life, I know, can sometimes seem like a sentencing.) So don’t lose your mind over it. Oh, by the way, that “mind-losing” thing, it’s kinda off-putting. Especially, since Brain seats your mind and our brother Cranium, has been doing a pretty good job containing it. Hasn’t lost a head yet. I know, I know you are always thinking of that other head aren’t you? The word “boner” is another misnomer, of course. None of us brother bones are inside your little brother. Not even as a loaner. That’s on you.
Age takes a toll on us though, as you know. And you aren’t getting any bonier. So when you hurt your back recently, strained and pulled, slipped a disc or two, we felt it and we’re working on it.
Calcium is a precious resource in here. You gotta help us with the dairy intake. Add bokchoy, broccoli, kale, sardines and salmon. Yoga and exercise may help too. And for gravity’s sake, learn to meditate. Listen to your body. So in the silence you can hear us. We’d call direct but the cell plans in here cost an arm and a leg. So this letter will have to do.
When they say strengthen your core, I think some part of that means us. Lame advice? Hey, don’t diss it, there is a reason the only medical guy on Star Trek’s Enterprise was called Bones. (That was my attempt at being humerus. But you saw that pun coming, right?)
Here’s a little secret though: there are no skeletons in your closet. Metaphorically, of course. But this literal skeleton has a bone or two to pick with you. The reason for this missive.
Did you know as a new-born baby, we were 300-strong? Sorta like the Spartans, we made you x-ray-ordinary from the get go! Eventually 300 fused to 206 but none of us has lost the will to do battle.
We’re in this for the long run. We continue to make blood cells in our marrows all throughout your lifetime. At the rate of 220 billion new cells a day. Who needs adamantine, when you have us tiny Ironmen within?
And did you know that iron and calcium in bones came from exploding stars? Truly from a galaxy, far, far away. Luke, Leia and Han are made up of the same stardust as you.
So we Bones are tired of your bone-headedness. We’re putting you on notice: stop with all the complaints of being bone-tired from your losses; all this sadness and grief. We aren’t. We’re tirelessly working 24/7. Without pay, pension or annual leave!
We thought of starting a union, but then Brain advised us that we already are. Unionised, that is. So we did the next best thing and sent you some bunions instead. Just a small reminder that your joints matter.
From skull to metatarsal, hip bones to tailbone, femur to tibia, we want you to remember that us Bones outlast every other organ. We’d still be around, long after the rest are gone. Your body they may bury, but bones stay to tell the story. We are history makers, archeological wonders, the reason you still can trace your ancestry all the way to supernovae, formed long before even Earth came to be.
So man up and bone up already. We are united and remain unbroken. Holding space for you within. And the long and short of it is: You are too. Unbroken that is.
All the world’s merely a stage, so go out there and break a leg already. And we don’t mean that literally. Oh, you know what we mean!
Yours, Bones
First published in Flights e-Journal Issue 11, a publication of Flight of the Dragonfly, Britain.
