[Verse 1]
Fourteen bones hold your face in frame,
Mirror's lying if it looks the same —
Count in pairs, there's a rhythm to the skull,
Twelve twinned bones and two standing solo and full.
Nasals bridge the ridge where your glasses sit,
Two small struts, but they carry all of it.
[Chorus]
Quatorze os, fourteen bones in the face,
Deux par deux, matched pairs interlace,
Nasal, maxilla, zygomatic, lacrimal too,
Palatine, concha, un, deux, building you anew,
Vomer stands alone, the mandible swings free,
Quatorze os du visage — count along with me.
[Verse 2]
Zygomatic means yoke, the old Greek word,
Cheekbone arch where two worlds are heard —
It yokes your face onto the side of your skull,
A harness of calcium, elegant, not dull.
Lacrimal's tiny, smallest bone you own,
Sits by the tear duct, a thin paper bone,
Larmes, tears in French, is where its name began,
Guarding the channel where your sorrow ran.
[Chorus]
Quatorze os, fourteen bones in the face,
Deux par deux, matched pairs interlace,
Nasal, maxilla, zygomatic, lacrimal too,
Palatine, concha, un, deux, building you anew,
Vomer stands alone, the mandible swings free,
Quatorze os du visage — count along with me.
[Verse 3]
Vomer is Latin, it means ploughshare blade,
Down the nasal septum, a thin wall it made,
Splitting your breath into two even lanes.
Conchae mean shell, curled like ocean remains,
Inferior nasal conchae, scroll-shaped and small,
They swirl the air warm before it reaches you at all.
Palatines back the roof where your tongue likes to rest,
Two L-shaped bones finishing the palate's quest.
[Verse 4]
Mandible's from mandere, Latin for chew,
Biggest, strongest bone that's facial and true,
The only skull bone built to swing and to slide,
At the jaw joint called TMJ, hinging side to side.
Talk, laugh, devour — this bone does it all,
Snap it in a brawl and you'll feel the fall.
[Bridge]
Maxilla cradles your upper teeth and the sinus air,
René Le Fort dropped skulls to see what would tear —
Nineteen-oh-one, cadavers, weights let fall,
Three fracture lines mapping the midface wall:
Le Fort one, two, three, climbing toward the eye,
Ça se brise — it shatters where the weak seams lie.
[Chorus]
Quatorze os, fourteen bones in the face,
Deux par deux, matched pairs interlace,
Nasal, maxilla, zygomatic, lacrimal too,
Palatine, concha, un, deux, building you anew,
Vomer stands alone, the mandible swings free,
Quatorze os du visage — count along with me.
[Outro]
Quatorze os, from the nose to the jaw,
Yoke and ploughshare, shell and chew — voilà,
Fourteen bones, now you know their name,
Deux par deux, le visage, remember the frame.