Bone and Sandalwood

My grandmother gave me a necklace
carved from white bone. A string of beads,
barrel-shaped, opening into flowers at either end.
They grade from tiny at the back of the neck
to large, upon the breast.

It was kept in a box for many years
with a delicately fretted sandalwood fan.
It's still slightly fragrant. A stolen vegetable past
impressed on beads masquerading as blossoms
yet ineluctably reminding me

of vertebrae.

Available! High-Voltage Lines, Knocking from Inside