Hollow Branches - The Spiral

I carved my name in the turning bark Where the old rings breathe in the dark Every year just folds me in Closer to the root of where I’ve been The crows don’t fly in straight lines here They circle slow, they disappear Time don’t pass, it coils and bends Brings the dead back round again Ash to loam, bone to grain Nothing here is ever slain Just buried deep to rise again In the spiral’s patient hand Down I go where the black roots wind Through the marrow of the mind Every step is a life I’ve shed Every death ain’t ever dead Round and round till the self unwinds Leaves the name and face behind What I lose is what I am… Spoken soft in the spiral’s hymn There’s a fire that don’t burn out Just sinks below and turns about Smolders low in the hollow ground Waits its time to come back round I’ve worn these bones in different ways Different names in different days But every road I thought was straight Bent me back through the same old gate Rot to bloom, night to flame Every loss just shifts the frame You don’t escape, you rearrange In the spiral’s quiet change Down I go where the black roots wind Through the marrow of the mind Every step is a life I’ve shed Every death ain’t ever dead Round and round till the self unwinds Leaves the name and face behind What I lose is what I am… Spoken soft in the spiral’s hymn No straight path through the soil No clean hands in this toil You become what you return You remember what you burn Down I go where the old roots bind All my ghosts in a single line Every breath is a borrowed thread Every grave just makes the bed Round and round till the veil runs thin Till the end folds back to begin I don’t fear what pulls me in I was born of the spiral’s skin…