Cut Bone

This artifact
dates to 1493,
seems to be

a response to some
discovery
or something.

A message
cut into
a bone

by steel, a sword
or pike
perhaps.

It almost 
took the bone
apart but

somehow
it’s held up
a long time.

We assume
this was
a killing blow

by lack of new bone
on the edges, and
considering

the angle of the cut
there was likely
a flood of blood.

Still,
the bone remains
in conversation

with discovery
and subsequent
conquest.

Does it
speak as Taino,
Arawak, Carib? 

In life, did it perhaps
speak Yoruban, Spanish,
Portuguese for a time?

It doesn’t matter
that much now. 
All you need to translate

is that huge remnant
of that unkind cut
and the sheer stubbornness

of the bone 
for not having dissolved
or crumbled.