Norwegian Tigers

I want to draw your bones if that’s alright with you

the way they remind me of the woman in the sea

who fell off that boat

somewhere near the North Coast

while her husband, shocked, watched from the deck

as waves like tigers gobbled her up whole 

(they didn’t even spit out her bones)

and I think someone heard the wind whisper,

“tigers will be tigers will be tigers.”

Separate that frame that holds you up

loosen those ribs like tigers’ teeth

oh, I can not help but think of her in the freeze

tigers’ breath on the salty breeze

it took four minutes to find her

but by then she was gone

like smoke from bones 

on a dying fire at dawn.

And it made me think:

one of us is going to have to die first.