Marian Call Bones
My first language was rhythm
A heartbeat not mine
And my first meal was shared
Blood and body bread and wine
Lord, but we never saw
No we never saw
My first quest
To leave home
Bright and cold
And my first test was to cry, was to cry
And my bones and my
And at the bones of it at the bones of it...
(Spare me just a second to be sincere, for old time's sake; it seems the stakes are high, and I know we all brought somethin' to burn)
(Spare me just a second to be sincere, for old time's sake; it seems the stakes are high)
(Pray if you could spare us just a second to make things clear, we found these bones bewildered by the fire –)
And the first law I learned was my own geography
What is out
What is in
Where you end
I begin
And my first waking words
Were to make a map of me
Eyes and ears, hands and toes
Hair in rows and the bones the bones the bones
Oh, the bones I did not ask to bind, still soft, already strong
And braced to stitch a story on
(Braced to stitch a story on)
And at the bones of it at the bones of it
In the stones around the fire –
(Oh I swear if you could spare us just a second to be right here, for pity's sake, we were not warned –)
So Imagination took the hand
Of Memory and chose a strand
To sew/sow the Twelve Ages of Man
In us again the something-billionth time
A calendar along the spine
A heart-clock pounding time
A primer 'cross my palms and standing soldiers for my skin
Physics at my fingertips, a fortress in my hips
And feast days on the tongue
And feast days on the tongue
All fiery gifts for waking songs
Fiery gifts and waking songs and oh
(Start at the beginning and start sincere, for glory's sake, it seems the stakes are high, and I've got to choose which bridges to burn)
(Pray if we could start at the beginning and wind up here (and who knows how) with kindling in our hands, and dawning causes for concern –)
And at the bones of it at the bones of it
In the stones around the fire
And at the bones of it at the bones of it
In the stones around the pyre the pyre
We start and finish lonely
The mourning moves in one direction only
And my first quest
Was to find out how it felt
And my first test
Was to speak
For myself
