Skeleton Woman

Old bones don’t sleep
Old bones don’t sleep
Old bones don’t sleep
They yearn to be once again dressed in the tears we weep

She remembered the sun from the world long ago
In the time before darkness and water
She soon became bone from the fish and the foam
In the fullness of time, we forgot her

A fisherman’s line through a hole in the ice
Caught this strangest of fish where she drifted
Salvation came down from the world far above
And the Skeleton Woman was lifted

She buried her teeth in the hem of his coat
As the fisherman tried to run past her
In terror he fled through the deepening gloom
With the rattle of bones chasing after

He cowered all night through the wind’s longing howl
From the monster he’d led to his home
But dawn showed the man that the creature he feared
Was twine all entangled in bone

In pity he wept, and the tears trickled down
From his eyes to the bones he regarded
From their heat she wove life and a young woman’s form
With a cry was her silence discarded

After ages uncounted of patience and hope
Was the Skeleton Woman rewarded