Skeleton, and: Skeleton, and: Skeleton

Abstract

Skeleton, and: Skeleton, and: Skeleton Deborah Landau (bio) SKELETON Strutting avec Cyndi Lauper, a flourish. Stuntkissing Kevin S. behind school on roller skates getting allelectric in biology class, at Dairy Queen, babysitting, Louie M.lying on top of me under layers of Michigan winter we wereexcessive. Those scenarios could get orthodontically complex.Trepidatious afterglow we'd saunter back to school. Who neededoratory? We were mad for the body in its meant-for-pleasure finery, lips a-cherry,nails glossed wine, libido an overdrive meant to keep us here a long time. [End Page 22] SKELETON Spooky! Everyone under their faces seems to bekaput know what I mean?Excessive sprawl of generations emptying onwardlabile, fleeting then that's it forever, bang.Eager to stay, I take the kale and kombuchatoting a calamitous hairdo and wrecked face asonward we sublimate (bones, bones, bones)never again veiled in skin. [End Page 23] SKELETON Sugar withdrawal symptoms turn out to be, what, exactly—keto flu, depression,killer headaches and cravings (cravings) (cravings)endorphins how I long for you— longing, that's a sugar andlove is, morning sun too, especially through French windows andearth is a sugar while it still greens around us. What else sweetens? not the internet nottweets, except maybe Alex's which are really poems in tweet's clothing, definitely notone (a tweet) from the president yet iced with the season's firstnarcissus blooms this day & somehow it's still a thrill to wake, warmbodied alive. [End Page 24] Deborah Landau deborah landau is the author of five books, including Skeletons. She is a professor and director of the NYU Creative Writing Program. Copyright © 2022 Yale University