by Alison Granucci
Located at the base of the skull, the sphenoid bone is the most complex bone in the human body.
Who knows how thoughts are summoned
into anyone’s skull? Butterfly bone. Bat bone. Wasp
bone. Delicate Wedge-in-the-center-of-the-head-
unpaired bone. Double-winged, looks like a flying
Ghost bone. Wings Greater span one side to the other: Anchor
bone. Touches all seven skull bones, holds the cranium
together. Not a stationary bone. Wave-and-pulse bone: consciousness
quickens cranio-sacral flow. Call it: Channel bone.
Canal bone. Wings Lesser form the optic
strut. The orbit is the eye and what lies behind
the eyes. What orbits inside my head is anyone’s
guess. Our temples are a latch. The sphenoid meets all at the door:
encounters the Temporal. Occipital. Parietal. Never once
accidental, jagged suture joints articulate us
through time: Mortal bone. Cradle bone: the Corpus
Hollow cups our dura: Mater bone. Seat of the Saddle,
our holy throne, shrines the master: Gland bone. Vaulted
chambers in this sanctum curl a Being bone: breathing
scroll-shaped holes hold resonance: some ghostly music
from these conchae means a Passage bone. Who knows
where mind flies outside all of our heads? Let’s call it: Antenna-and-
sift-bone. Metamorphose, Roost, Sting bone. Oh, my Lord-
how-in-the-world-do-I-know-what-words-to-sing- bone.
Alison Granucci is a poet and naturalist living in the Hudson Valley. Her work is featured or forthcoming in several journals including RHINO (Second Place Editor’s Prize), Tupelo Quarterly, Terrain.org, Pangyrus, Connecticut River Review, Plant-Human Quarterly, and Subnivean (Poetry Award finalist). Alison reads for The Rumpus and is at work on her first book.
Emerge Literary Journal 