HEARD / WORD is a new audio series highlighting compelling voices in poetry and prose. The series kicks off today with author and poet
Stephanie Han reading ‘A Garden’s Bones’ - an excerpt from her manuscript “Passing in the Middle Kingdom.”

To find out how your reading can be featured, click here.

A GARDEN’S BONES

By Stephanie Han

Bones.
Bones shoot from the earth—
a three-pronged fork.
Hard and pale white stumps—
jetties on green sea.
Bones;
a sturdy skeleton
buried in tufts of winter grass
hacked and sawed by the woman upstairs—
one less to water, feed or tend
a Death
a Blessing.
A curious sculpture these bones kicked by a tiny boy
ringed by dirt and dried feces
for the gods to chew
for the winds to gnaw
a brittle snap
a slow decay.
Bones are phantoms
spit from the glory of summer’s bush.
At night my son cries: shadows, ghosts.
Does he mean these bones?
Weeks pass
nubs give way to stems and curved leaves.
Feel the baby’s temple, the barely-hard skull
damp with the terror of light.