dancing the cathedral bones down



dancing the cathedral bones down
these light and airy bones of my cathedral
this rose crusting that delights the sun with slivers of old blood glass
with my hair unfurling around the aching pillars
I begin dancing the bones down
artwork of my eyes erupts in the fall
shells echoe though the hells of my ears
dancing the scottish swing between the pattern of 
white fragments
my feet bounce on by the ancestor ties
my arms swing across the arcs of generations
I break the string of grandmother finger beads 
beneath slapping soles
I pull apart white mother pages with quick snap of 
fingers
in circles my hair curls all the roof down
my face palmed open to the blue shout of sky
hands slap thighs as the buttocks crack the legs high
light and airy I dance the last bones down
in bounds I turn the hair of my veil with head 
flybyes
pelvic to spine I shudder the lies white still
face back
legs spread
arms cracked wide
each finger spreads the light 
over my cathedral crossed graveyard


© 1987, Debra Grace/Sciaf
Scraps of Thought