Raven

 Raven binds the story to the scar

"All the land we ever loved is creased into each fold and crinkle in our skin. This land has known our every step..witnessed our journeys..nourished and received us. The land that recognizes us will always find a way to mark itself onto our skin..and once that is done..we can never be without the place that most reflects our soul. Our skin forms the final boundary that separates our dreaming from the outer world; it is the last barrier that protects our souls from sliding into death. And all the death we ever feared is crushed and smeared inside each pore of our skin. Death demands respect and fear of death needs remembering. We shall honor that landscape beyond life with every drop of moisture that is wept or labored from our pores. All the truth we ever yearned for is scribed into our cuts and rubbed into the raw wounds of our skin. They are a lasting record of the truth we have been seeking..while we forgot and then created memories..while we reshaped our understanding of the world. All the songs we ever heard are pinned into our skin by sharp bone needles; there are so many songs and each one carved from the shards and fragments of our lives. The bones pierce us over and over again pressing who we are and what we know into our hidden flesh..bonding us forever to our songs. And all those folds and pores and cuts and piercings on our skin are sure to last. We will never lose our land or death or truth or songs for we carry them with us always. They are forever in our scars."