The Colour of Bones
A scarlet maiden lies in the cliff
open bellied. Chorister bats scaffold birds
shrieking farewell adieu
Stained rune-terracotta; fragments
The small beads of her pelvis
Blossom like cherries. From
such bones fall prophecy. Cerise, jasper
raspberry. Others fade to dung
in the scribbling sands
Old women plucking weeds. Softly folding
sea into her eyes; she sings enchantments
to colour bones green
open bellied. Chorister bats scaffold birds
shrieking farewell adieu
Stained rune-terracotta; fragments
The small beads of her pelvis
Blossom like cherries. From
such bones fall prophecy. Cerise, jasper
raspberry. Others fade to dung
in the scribbling sands
Old women plucking weeds. Softly folding
sea into her eyes; she sings enchantments
to colour bones green
posted by Sue hardy-Dawson at 4/15/2009 08:33:00 PM
2 Comments:
Quirky like a Kate Bush song. Riddled with a sense of history and spectres and of the beauty of nature aging mans creations. (I think)
Ah well, you see there is a red skeleton somewhere I once saw a documetry about except now I can find no trace of it. It was thought to be female but turned out in fact to be male, which is only dissapointing, because a scarlet maiden sounds so much more poetic. I wrote a version of this some time ago and was going to put a foot note but I can't find the details. Anyway I thought I'd keep her a maiden the rest is his unknown history.
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