backbone

I think I gained a vertebra today

Somewhere in my upper thoracic

A stretching of my spine

I find I can see at least a good three centimetres higher

and I swear that if I lay down and let the ground decay

the soft and fleshy parts of me

that you used to say were so damn beautiful

and waited for sedimentary rock to press me

caressing my skin with centuries

and make me an imprint of hard sand

(a footprint, leg print, pointed elbows in distal proximity to

once ungainly bony edges )

that my Jurassic skeleton would have an extra segment

slipped in between moments where you turned away

A subtle silky white curve bundled up with raw nerves and muscles

wrapped around the vestigial place

where scaly feathers would have sprouted

clever claws that rip and tear the underbelly

of any scampering squeaking thing who dares get in my way