skeletons

(from an un-dated book, maybe mid nineties)

they gather
in city squares
at four a.m.
the tiny skeletons
of living airplanes
and they dive
down to the bottom
of the fountain to
pick up only nineteen
sixty-seven pennies
which they carry home
to their tree houses
in the pine forest
to the north
of the city.

in how many hands
had each penny
been held
to erode the
highest features
to a shining copper
color?

the first living airplane
skeleton was born from the
depths of a lake at
four a.m in nineteed sixty seven