Abstract #4123 by Ellen June Wright
The Bonebreaker
Unlike its cousins, the bearded vulture
does not wait for scraps or scavenge
remains from the feasts of fangèd hunters.
This raptor builds its nest higher than most—
steep-sided canyons, stern skyward cliffs
and mountain ranges near alpine pastures
and meadows, favorite haunt of ungulates
with their pretty hooves, their good bones
guarding nutrients of fat and marrow.
The plumed ossifrage carries its prize
corpse-pieces high, higher, and releases:
talons open. Bones twist as they gain speed,
macabre mineral pirouettes plummeting
down to rocky slope, shattering open.
The lesson: if the acid in the gut is strong
enough, all sustenance lies in the breaking.
About the author:
Colleen S. Harris earned her MFA in Writing from Spalding University. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her poetry collections include The Light Becomes Us (Main Street Rag, forthcoming 2025), Babylon Songs (First Bite Press, forthcoming 2025), These Terrible Sacraments (Bellowing Ark, 2010; Doubleback, 2019), The Kentucky Vein (Punkin House, 2011), God in My Throat: The Lilith Poems (Bellowing Ark, 2009), and chapbooks Toothache in the Bone (forthcoming 2025, boats against the current), That Reckless Sound (Pork Belly Press, 2014) and Some Assembly Required (Pork Belly Press, 2014).
In the artist’s words:
Ellen June Wright’s work revolves around the power of color and the emotions and memories they evoke. She is inspired by the works of Stanley Whitney, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Frank Bowling, Howardena Pindell, Jamaican Artist Cecil Cooper and others. Her art appears in LETTERS, Gulf Stream Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, Breakwater Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Hole In The Head Review, Oyster River Pages, Kitchen Table Quarterly, NOVUS Literary Journal and others. Her work was included in the 2024 Newark Arts Festival and featured at the HACPAC in NJ.
To see more visit: Ellen June Wright – Official Website