my father & i steal back our dinosaur bones.

when i was three i sat on my father's
shoulders to bear witness
to the mighty bone elegy of 
allosaurus--
hunks of boulder lodged
in the fossilized body of 
ankylosaurus-- we
were bone worshipers--
our pilgrimage summoned
us to the Museum of Natural History--
disciples of the skeleton--
acolytes of anatomy--
it was probably a few years later
that our own bones 
started to fade away--
we didn't notice at first--
found it harder & harder 
to walk next to 
each other--
we stopped praying to 
dinosaurs--
tore off an arm bone
to use as a softball bat--
steadied ourselves with the
torsos of the trees--
the necks of the ivy
pulling us up by the puppet strings--
mornings we have to crawl on
all fours to make
it through another field
of antique lamps & 
PEZ dispensers
in august
my father & i meandered on
the arthritic gravel 
of the country road behind
our house--
the one with the foxes
eating watermelon rinds
& we realized we were both
limping--
my father's body crumpled--
his ribs turned into kindling--
snapped like
wishbones or 
violin bows--
he touched my arm
with his callous fingers--
felt right throw it--
no bones--no bones-- no fossils--
we had become a state
of being stolen-- 
a femur-- a fibula-- the arch
of my hips bit off like
the bottom of an ice cream cone--
i melt--we melt 
on the back steps of the
bottling works where
we drink root beer like
cough syrup--
count the number of bones
we've had pillaged & make
a list--
my father wants back 
his ribs--
i'm settling for 
my knees-- i'm nothing
without something to
hinge on--
somehow i get back up on his
shoulders
& we manage not to crumble--
it's dark but the moon
has a belly full of koi--
we break in through the windows
of the museum--
this time there is no reverence
because we want our bones back--
the ones the dinosaurs have taken
from us all these years--
i want the hallow legs
of a pterodactyl-- the crest of
an iguanodon--
my father tears the 
plates off the back 
of the stegosaurus to make armor--
this time
this time
this time we won't break.