Song Of Bones Poem by jim hogg

I imagine valleys and no pecking order enemies
A bow and arrow living where the deer go down with tears
No cities born excusing all the crime that's screwed from myth
No profit torn from innocence, advantage to the fierce

You would find a place there in the lottery of true romance
A smoke and cottage shelter there from egos and from gods
Who compensate for emptiness with gold and breaking hands
With no need to accommodate, to bleed against the odds

(chorus)

I forget for moments all the chosen people's arrogance
I sit beside the river now with all my memories
the madness of this world I valued over simpler plans
and know too well the other side's completely out of reach

I remember faces from the crescent and the hillside streets
The modest eyes and attitudes that looked beyond the walls
so unimpressed and undeceived by all the heights and sweets
Who raised their families here in village schools and village halls

(chorus)

But such a piece of work is man, sometimes you've got to smile
Part animal, part angel spun from ecstacy and fear
For who among us knowingly would ride this crocodile
Would tear the flesh of others and greet beauty with a tear

Underneath this canopy of early autumn's changing tones
The music playing loudest is misgiving and regret
But maybe that's the song of these embattled dreams and bones
where falling isn't failure when decay new life begets

chorus
For now the river's flowing red with blood and broken dreams
But round the river's bend you'll find an island in the stream
And just beyond the toppled thrones where slaughter's on its knees
There's children playing in the glen beneath the old beech trees