Just admire this ewer, this flasket,
this carafe – aren’t they more elegant
than the living heads of giraffes?

A vulture’s skull makes an excellent
scuttle. A hog’s head a wok, or a handy
slopbucket. This cannikin, this goblet,

this demitasse - all from a lemur’s femur.
This nose pin’s from a tarsier’s tarsal,
 this guitar pick’s a jackass’s vomer,

(the tiny ploughshare that divides
each nostril). No chinaware is finer
than this swallow-skull chalice, or this

crock from the head of a worn-out ox.
Don’t sit on your buttock-bones like
a sharp-edged utensil - here, let me

show how this pelvis can become
a low-slung chair. Wait till you see
what I can do with a humerus; how

a simple patella makes a dish (oh,
yes say it) - for paella. This store is
full of sacral talismans, knick-knacks

I nick every day from the knackery.
I love all the bijouterie you can make
from the spine. Shall I advertise?

        Backbone bric-a-brac,
        for altars and shrines.