Excavate me on a hunch,
dig until you win.
When you surely find me incomplete,
when I see the light,
seize my turtledove skeleton,
lift me to the mortal realm,
remind them I once embodied might.
With gentle brush strokes
divorce me from the earth I carry;
cast for me my missing bones,
vivify me with a fighter’s posture,
clench a rose in my fleshless hand,
box me in with velvet ropes.