Bundles

Oh, pick me up I'm this bundle of sticks

Tied with the stems of clover and brambles

Oh, pick me up I'm this bundle

Wrapped in shrouds of muscle

And patched with cedars and shadows

Patched for a million miles

Waiting like a praying mantis

To be found by a curious child

Those tiny ones with open-eyed wonder

Like the jaws of a yawning coyote

Or a cactus blooming early

And loving dawn like a mother

Loving dawn like a mother

And wishing that rain was the answer

And loving dawn like a mother

Loving dawn like a mother

And wishing that rain was the answer

And in curious jars we're a spinning'n 'n 'n

Spinning, spinning, spinning into sickness

Spinning, spinning, spinning into sickness

And singing for stillness

Spinning, spinning, spinning into sickness

Spinning, spinning, spinning into sickness

And making up a still bed, making up a still bed

So I'm notching my spine with thorns pulled from

your thumb, notching my spine with thorns pulled

from your thumb, and I am swallowing my, I'm

swallowing my bees down

I'm buckling my, I'm buckling my knees up

I'm eating my own hide to hide in my own skin

I'm eating my own hide to hide in my own skin

'Till I am left a hanging

Upside down and draining

Like skinned does a dangling

From a hunters oak limb

Like my sisters those does, woven in red shrouds

Wearing bare ribbons of tightly wrapped muscles

And bearing the burden of being that gift from the forest

That turns humans wooden when opened

So can you, can you, can you tell me?

So can you, can you, can you tell me?

If it's easier to be emptier but lighter

Or if it's easier to be the lantern or the fire

If it's easier to be a lover or an echo

If it's easier to be the bull or the fighter

Or if it's easier to die by arrows or by tigers

If it's easier to fly by monarchs or by sparrows

By monarchs or by sparrows

Oh, let me know

And there's a grizzly bearing in me

There's a grizzly bearing in me

And in you and in us and in we

In you and in us and in we

Grizzly paws hide me

Grizzly paws hold me

Grizzly cradles me

Raising my like an offering

Of a bundle of sticks to the sun

Of a bundle of sticks to the sun, to the sun

Now I'm sewing, sewing, sewing medicine bundles

With grass threads and porcupine quills

I'm filling them up with galaxy beams

And with all the stars you've snuffed

And all the ghosts you've been

With every shape you've morphed

And all the trees you've stumped

I'm filling them up with all the blood

Your heart has pumped and pumped

And with all of the love that your mouth has rushed

With all of the voices that your ears have rung

With all of the life that your dirt has sprung

And with all of the magic that your gardens have grown

I'm filling up these bundes with all the seeds

You've sewn, and sewn, and sewn

All the roots you've webbed and all the wind

You've blown, and blown, and blown

All the roots you've webbed and all the wind you've blown

And I'm filling up these bundles with all the twins you've born

With every brother lost and all the organs you've loaned

With every brother lost and all the organs you've loaned

So, pick us up we're these bundles

Tied with the stems of clover and brambles

Oh, pick us up we're these bundles

Wrapped in shrouds of muscles