The Wisdom of the Bones/ The Unknown Tomb of the Poet

"The Wisdom of the Bones"

They found you, Federico,
or so the newsmen say.
And soon your bones will be borrowed back
from their residency in the earth,

Picked over by new vultures
who seek in the scraps of your skeleton
the secret songs of bone.
The years of forgetting are over.

Five others, desconocidos, rest with you.
Who are these dusty ghosts?
Will they speak with rotted tongues?
But it is you they want, Federico.

When the spades strike
like the bullets struck
I hope your bones find voice
sing them what they seek
Forgive them, Federico, and sleep.



(I am, as usual, not certain of the title. Originally, "wisdom of the bones" was in the poem, replacing the "secret songs of bone." I may return to that, because the singing bones idea is brought up again, in the last stanza. "The Years of Forgetting Are Over" is an alternate title, as is "The Secret Songs of Bone.")