The skull, picked quite clean
And bleached by the sun and wind
Until it is more an objet d’art
Than a memento mori
Is trying to speak to me.

In just such an emblematic a fashion
The world takes on
Human form. If it did not do so,
How could I understand it?
After a great deal of thought,
I reached the following conclusion –
The imperative study
Is that of the mute languages
Sign and cipher, the baulked speech
Of stones, implements and skeletons.
I believed I had defined the problem
With which the picked skull had presented me.