Imperative

Break a sentence; use letters for teeth.

In a word missing a letter, place a tooth.

Flick a period off the page with a fingernail.

Press on the black dot; smear into a comma.

Separate a skeleton into verbs and subjects.

Until ink comes out, pinch a letter.

Use letters shaped like bones; connect a word.

In the sockets of a skull, put commas.

Push a verb to push a noun off the page.

Until it softens, rub bone against paper.

Boil the skeleton of a sentence into ink.

Suck the marrow out of a letter.

Grind up a piece of bone; make calcium ink.

For paper, soak skin in bleach.

Erase a letter until it looks like a tooth.

Amputate one letter to fix another.

Pull a punctuation mark from a sentence.

At end of sentence, remove the tiny black skull.

Crack a sentence; let the ink drain.

Dip a bone into ink; leave it to dry.

Take a bone and lay it before a verb.

Shake punctuation off the page.

Scrape the paper from a letter.

To erase a sentence, remove your tongue.

Bleach paper then put on face.

Use commas to connect bones.

Extract the ink from a sentence.

Rinse a letter in bleach; wring it out.

With the edges of paper, skin yourself;

bathe in bleach until flesh slides off;

get out and lie down like a sentence.

Copyright © 2009 Orlando White All rights reserved
from Bone Light
Red Hen Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission