He outlined the bones
On the boy's body
With a fibre-tip pen.

The biology class crowded round,
Copied the pattern of the scapula,
Femur and humerus.

The boy's body was fine boned,
Like a slender hound,
With an ivory pulse at the throat.

As he ringed the breast-bone,
The rib-cage shimmered
Through the skin.

Had he flayed the flesh,
The bright lattice
Could not have shone more sheerly.

Fear rose
That he would stammer out
The luminous beauty of the soul's white cage.

Looking up, he saw his shaking hand,
The boy's suspicious gaze;
And grief struck him -
Not how they would misconstrue his trembling,
But that the soul's tremor in a boy's body
He could not draw.