said the hand-written sign
in a shop in the old movie-set

western town, and I looked closely
to see what I might identify,

not being well-versed in anatomy,
and then I thought, I hope these

came from animals, as I detected
bleached vertebrae and ribs,

possibly large teeth, maybe
part of a femur? and I thought,

deer? elk? But I didn’t want to ask
the bearded proprietor outside

on the porch chatting with
an older man who looked as if

he could’ve been an extra in
one of the westerns shot there,

so I settled for a commemorative
magnet instead, and, as my pardner

and I moseyed down the dusty street
of the mostly deserted desert town,

past sculptural Joshua trees reaching
for the heavens, it struck me that

we are animals, too, all of us
bipedal primate mammals,

whose roughly 206 bones
might fetch a bit over $1,000

if we were neatened up and
parted out like the holy relics

we are all destined to become.