- Deflesh them with bone knives.
- Let the wolves and ravens deflesh them.
- Gather them into skin bags and bury them under the hearth.
- Feed them beer.
- Dig them up every fall and dance with them.
- Dig ditches around them so the uninitiated cannot get too close.
- Build mounds over them so the otherworld can ascend and be closer to us.
- Organize them by size and type.
- Rearrange them into new, mash-up ancestors.
- Break them so they will not follow us in our dreams.
- Suck out the marrow so their spirits will protect us in our dreams.
- Burn them and place them in jars of clay decorated with rows of pits, as from missing teeth.
- Erect stones around them in a circle so they will remember us who stand in the light.
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.
I can’t believe I used bullet points rather than numbers, passing up a golden opportunity for a prehistoric listicle! (“Twelve great things to do with human bones in the Neolithic.”)