Marian Call

Bones Lyrics

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