The Salt Crown

Now I have your shoes

Today I wear your old black shirt

I have the things that I gave to you

But soon I'll be ready to give them back

Come and get them

Shale-skin, salt-crown, slate-feather, corpse-down

Stone-blood, flesh-bane, life-bone, death-vein, salt-crown

Face the sunrise with eyes made of light

Swallow the early song with eardrums made of the first sound

Break the soft young earth with limbs made of the oldest stone

Through our watery eyes, stone watches itself standing

Alone, forever, against the flickering sky

Through our watery mouths, stone calls itself by a new name

Bones of the earth. Stone

The bones call the stone by name,

Crying, "Come, old mother, and cover me."

The stone shows the bones the way of the silent, lifeless salt crown

The bones call the bones of the earth by name

Crying, "Come, old mother's father, and bury me."

The stone shows the bones the way of the

Ageless, deathless salt crown

Now you've gone back in

And I'll stay out with your bones, burned and ground to sand

Keep watch with the faces you made with your hands

But soon I'll be ready… no I'm not ready to give them back

Come, oh come and get them