Billie's Bones

Billie's tears fall like dust

From the air into my eyes

Seeping in before they rust

Spilling secrets words can't hide

I am standing on the bones

Of a mound too high to climb

Selling secrets to atone

For a song that is not mine

Billie's bones are white and bleached

Piled high and hard to reach

And the top looks cold and bleak

But I see farther when I stand

On Billie's bones in Billie's land

There's an orchid in her hair

There are bruises on her lips

I would worship if I dared

Kneeling at her fingertips

I would tell her how I've yearned

To be worthy of the grail

All these years and all I've learned

Is just how brilliantly I fail

Billie's bones are white and bleached

Piled high and hard to reach

And the top looks cold and bleak

But I see farther when I stand

On Billie's bones in Billie's land

Now the flesh of earth has passed

Now the joints have come undone

All that's left of her is ash

Scattered on the air like crumbs

There are voices on the wind

Stolen whispers, sacred moans

You can hear them through your skin

And the singing of the bones

When the wind blows from the east

I can taste her on my tongue

And the grave is lined and paved with

All the songs we never sung

Billie's bones are white and bleached

Piled high and hard to reach

And the top looks cold and bleak

But I see farther when I stand

On Billie's bones in Billie's land