"A luxury."

[Leanne]

I love the humility, Ris -- the bloke's carrying something priceless and otherworldly (in the eyes of those who would care about such things) and he's bothered by the fact that he's wasting a bit of cloth! Then again, the shabby rag could well mean his own flesh. For me, I think you could probably do without the fourth line completely and just have:

My bare foot' prints
Stain with boiling blood

As we already know he's on a road, from the first line.

This is intriguing, and we love a good skull mystery of course!