Dead End Folklore

I got more than one bone to pick
But the corpses all look the same
When the whole mountain range is made of tinder and tow
It won’t take much to set the hills aflame
I’ll warm my hands over charnel fires
Breathing in the dust of the day
I hear the howl of the coyotes in the dry dead land
They come to carry the scraps away.

Would you ever
Eat your tribe
If meant you would never die?
Would you follow
The feet of your brothers
Tracking flames across the sky?
Would you ever
Be consumed
By this modern life?
Would you let the void
Eat you alive
If his teeth took away your strife?

Took a walk back to the forest path
Following the creek like a vein
Where if you bury your axe into the fallen wood
You can almost hear it screaming in pain
Sucking up the blood from the gravel and mud
At the foot of the hanging tree
And all the roots have cracked the jagged tombstones in half
So I forgot where they buried me.

On a country road at the twilit hours
When the dusk light pierces the trees
There’s a game trail to follow out back of the church
But you’re gonna have to crawl on your knees
When the brambles close tighter and you lose your past
And all the futures seem to be the same
You’re gonna burrow and bite until the world rots black
Like a worm in the orchard of names.