Physical anthropologist
Sara Bisel pulled

from the Herculanean
mud, a solid-gold

bangle. It belonged
to the half-exposed

Roman Bisel was
studying. She probed

a pelvic fragment’s fused
but slightly porous rim,

and spoke her findings in
a soft voice: 27

years, at least two children.
At this, she winced, looked guilty.

I watched her dirty hands
place the other half

of the woman’s hip-
bone into a bin,

and pat it, gently.