When you think of usefulness, think not of the bone
But the advantage of marrow, what might not technically
Constitute a meal, but that which grandmothers heaved
Into soup bowls when the trees thinned of animals.
I am trying to be less morbid, but if we were the Donner party
Could I pass for a respectable Thanksgiving meal or at least
A sizeable charcuterie board? I remember asking teachers this
To watch how fast the red climbed their throats. A lesson in childhood--
To learn that we are meat before we are anything. 
If you wanted a bottled kidney, or my midday slaughter
I’d ask only for the grace Adam gave the animals
Give me your namings— you, my late spring,
My stoppered hunger.
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