The Whispering Bones

by Lyndsey Croal

The bones whisper to me in my sleep,

in my waking,

in my moments of thinking nothing at all.

They whisper stories of pain, loss,

and of wishes that never came true

when they were living.

I try to drown them out with dreams of my own,

but I cannot compete with the dead.

Not when they are so many, and I am all alone.

Sometimes, I find fragments of them

beneath ashen soil or sunken sand,

or somewhere they were never intended to be found.

I put them together, piece by piece:

femur and rib,

skull and wing,

jaw and toes.

For a time, the whispers still,

so quiet they could just be a breeze

or the sea kissing a pebbled beach

or a cold breath lingering too long on the back of my neck.

But the peace is short lived.

There are always more lost and forgotten voices

waiting to be laid to rest,

waiting for someone to listen.

And so, I let the whispers in,

a flourish of wants,

a blossom of demands,

a bloom of desire.

I use the voices to find the bones,

gather them one by one,

day by day,

night by night,

until all the whispering bones lie together in a mosaic

ready for assembly.

I plant the bones in freshly tilled earth:

seeds of decay, bulbs of marrow, fruits of sinew.

Finally, the whispers still, and the bones can sleep.

Until the first sprout grows,

breaking from the soil

with skeletal fingers reaching for sunlight.

They are jointed stems with darkened veins,

pale white branches, and hollow buds.

Soon there is a whole forest of them,

whispering in rhythm with the wind,

almost drowned out by rustling leaves

or birdsong at dawn.

But now it is peaceful here, roaming and listening.

Between the living and dead,

or the dead and living,

for I am no longer sure

I can tell the difference.

Lyndsey Croal is an Edinburgh-based writer of speculative and strange fiction. She is a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, and her work has been published in several anthologies and magazines, including Mslexia's Best Women's Short Fiction 2021, Shoreline of Infinity, and Dark Matter Magazine. Her debut audio drama 'Daughter of Fire and Water' was produced by Alternative Stories & Fake Realities, and was a finalist for a 2022 British Fantasy Award. 'The Whispering Bones' is her first poetry publication. Find her on Twitter as @writerlynds or via www.lyndseycroal.co.uk.