I Love Your Crazy Bones

By Barton Sutter b. 1949 Barton Sutter

Even your odds and ends.

I love your teeth, crazy bones,

Madcap knees and elbows.

Forearm and backhand

Hair makes you animal.

Rare among things.

The small of your back could pool rain

Into water a main might drink. Perfect,

From the whirlpools your fingers print

On everything you touch

To the moons on the nails of all ten toes

Rising and setting inside your shoes

Wherever you go.

Barton Sutter, “I Love Your Crazy Bones,” from Cedar Home. Copyright © 1977 by Barton Sutter. Used by permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.

Source: Cedar Home (BOA Editions Ltd., 1977)

Biography

Barton Sutter was born and raised in small towns in the Upper Midwest. He earned degrees from Southwest Minnesota State University and Syracuse University, and taught at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, the University of Minnesota, and other institutions. The only author to win the Minnesota Book Award in three separate categories, Sutter’s poetry, fiction, and essays depict the landscape and people of the Upper Midwest. . . .

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