If and Only If: A Journal of Body Image and Eating Disorders Winter 2015 | Page 45

Katie Kelleher

Elephant Graveyards

In her closet

was an elephant graveyard

by night the bones clanked together

speaking stories

in the language of held tongues

They visited her sleep

sharp tusks

through the holes in her dream catcher

haunting now

the rooms of her mind

In the light she wore them

bones tucked carefully under sleeves

a shield solid

save for their meeting places

disjointed

she would bend and buckle at a touch

In time the bones wore her

an oscillation

slipped through cracks of thin skin

filling her hollow spaces

Heavy

step lightly

No

not lightly now

she carries the weight

of skeletons