Furcula

Trading futures on the wishing bone

clavicles fuse in birds’ ancestral night

in this revision one and one makes one

it holds the stress in the thoracal zone

springing the bird to post-Jurassic flight

to trade in futures on the wishing bone

Hall in Bones and Cartilage has shown

the furcula might prove a midline split

in this revision one makes one and one

turtles and all reptilian life thus thrown

into the evolving curve of modern flight

now trade in futures on the wishing bone

and flocks of starlings, sparrows, swallows know

that one for all and all for one is right

a living riddle of the one and one and one

but in the ritual splitting of the bone

as Martin’s morning breaks upon the night

we trade in futures on the wishing bone

and learn too late that one and one make none