There was a white owl in a black stone coat
Who rowed in from dreams in a cracked bone boat
With a ringtail rat
Who sang as he sat
In key but never on note

Of the lives that were lived in the hours of sleep
That built worlds that would give all but not keep
And said to set sail
For the Isles of Tale
For there the dreaming was deep

Enough that it might yet stay out of sight,
Survive the first light ending the short night,
And then as the dawn
Glanced up with a yawn
Owl sang with rat the invite

For the crack was a fact of their bone boat,
Owl thankfully sank with hope in stone coat
But the rat swam on
Still singing their song
In key but never on note.