Bare plains, bare backs, bare bones

We call home

Bare hunts, bare homes, bare hands

To the skin and to the stones

Our bodies to conquer

Our bodies to roam

Bare plains, bare backs, bare bones

Cold wind, cold steel, warm hands

We make no sound

Cold judgement, warm kiss

We stay low to the ground

The women who fought us

They smelled us and caught us

And now you’ll never be found

Hyacinth and chamomile

Forget-me-not and roses

Pressed inside my book

For when you lie in soft repose

I’ve wandered through the wastes of barren catatonic shame

It was only in the thunderstorm that I’d recall my name

The circus man who shone so bright

Regret I never told him

Right before he left us

I’d begun to find a home in him

Families like packs of wounded beasts

I learned to stay

But the devil in the details stole my body far away

Bare hands, bare bones, bruised heart

Learn to trust

Build homes, break chains, bear loss

Do penance where we must

The thunder who raised me

The people that saved me

The rage, the rain, the rust