Today I eat lunch with the anatomy skeleton<\/p>\n
hanging wired together in the art room.<\/p>\n
We shake hands. I want to kiss her,<\/p>\n
because the bones are real,<\/p>\n
and maybe she would bloom out of her decay,<\/p>\n
cicada-like and ancient.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A quick, perhaps forgivable glance at the pelvis<\/p>\n
confirms, yes, it is a she, and I name her Charlotte<\/p>\n
because I like the ring of it.<\/p>\n
Leave her body to science?<\/p>\n
No, never to science. But to art, maybe.<\/p>\n
What color were her eyes, I wonder,<\/p>\n
lurking like embers in a heap of bones?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So old, at least now she presides here,<\/p>\n
mutely telling the charcoal-drenched artist,<\/p>\n
This is all you are, so look<\/em>.<\/p>\n And if I sit here often enough, insisting on Charlotte,<\/p>\n maybe the name will rattle something awake<\/p>\n in that bone cocoon, knit muscle and skin over that blank,<\/p>\n and she will blink in slow, lush approval.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The abbey\u2019s ruined arches jut from the ground<\/p>\n like giant ribs. From beneath them,<\/p>\n this fine mist seems just the thing<\/p>\n <\/p>\n for atmosphere, camera perfect and on cue.<\/p>\n It mutes every sound\u2014the tread of our rubber boots,<\/p>\n the tour guide\u2019s practiced tones.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And the bronze plaque marking King Arthur\u2019s grave,<\/p>\n where he is not buried,<\/p>\n stands quietly matter-of-fact in its lie.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We snap pictures. Sure,<\/p>\n with the mist, this could be Avalon.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t. Maybe that\u2019s why somebody<\/p>\n <\/p>\n tore down the abbey years ago and used the stone<\/p>\n to build that big, faceless house on the hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today I eat lunch with the anatomy skeleton . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2909,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[703,6,704,705,706,707,708,709,710,711,712,713],"class_list":["post-2908","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-anatomy","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-avalon","tag-aza-pace","tag-england","tag-glastonbury","tag-glastonbury-abbey","tag-king-arthur","tag-rain-in-glastonbury","tag-ruins","tag-skeleton","tag-somerset"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRain in Glastonbury<\/h3>\n