Fingers,
too big for milk teeth
pulling from the root
but the tooth isn't enough.
The same hands on a skeleton
not yet fully formed
stealing a rib bone
but it breaks too easily.
Trinkets left on the mantlepiece
but no one questions the collection.
So many small bones
in fragments, stuffed in cupboards
until someone
grows big
pieces themselves together
and sets the house on fire.
© Diane Lawlor