‘Instructions Set in Bone’: Poem by Peter Lillios Turned into Song

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“Instructions Set in Bone” by Peter Lillios was first published by the Society of Classical Poets here. Now songwriter Joseph DeNatale has created a version with adapted lyrics below.

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Instructions Set in Bone (Music Lyrics)

With my own knife, by my own hand,
I carve these words in no-man’s-land
Upon the skull of my late foe,
Who sheltered here some weeks ago.

He’d only paused to rest a time,
And plug a hole, broad as a dime,
Drilled into him from our front line
By someone’s rifle—maybe mine.

He’d bled out then, afraid, alone—
No way to part or to atone,
Save for a scrap of paper there,
Clutched in his fist, the bones laid bare.

Slash by slash, I inscribe my mark.
I send these words as envoys from the dark.
Slice by slice, I extend my hand.
I hope that you will understand
I hope that you will understand.

The ink has long since rinsed away,
His wishes lost to rain and spray.
They mingle thus with bile and blood,
And float atop this pool of mud.

Now here I sit in our shared tomb,
Half hour or less before my doom.
I too was felled, but in my case,
These letters shall not be effaced.

I wash his skull with my canteen,
And buff it to a perfect sheen.
I’ll etch now my last testament,
And strive to make it eloquent.

Slash by slash, I inscribe my mark.
I send these words as envoys from the dark.
Slice by slice, I extend my hand.
I hope that you will understand
I hope that you will understand

I know not whom this verse will reach,
And do not dare opine or preach.
No words of mine could much deserve,
More than my foe’s, to be preserved.

I was a brother and a son,
Taught only how to hold a gun,
And how to skin a hare or deer
Back home, with Pa, in yesteryear.

So I’ll write this, and then must go:
Should these words reach a wiser foe,
Take up your knife—see it’s not dull—
And carve your wisdoms in my skull.

Slash by slash,
I inscribe my mark.
I send these words as envoys from the dark.
Slice by slice,
I extend my hand.
I hope that you will understand.
I hope that you will understand.

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Peter Lillios resides in Sound Beach, New York. He is an auditor by profession.