All I Ever Knew Lie Dead

"Through blood and thorns I wandered,

freezing, aching, bound for a ruined cathedral below.

All is dead, look! Only rust, and debris,

and shells of stone remain, drowning in ashes, a

s if we had never been. Everyone I had ever known.

Everyone I'd ever meet.

Everyone I ever loved.

Gone with the centuries, lost under a sea of ashes."

Only now when every chance

To belong

Is bitterly gone

I feel I do

For the very first time

I understand

The gift we had

Now forever gone

All I ever knew lie dead

And their epitaphs the ashes guard

Must I live to mourn the world

Or find reunion once the ashes part

For I am chosen

To speak

At the open grave

Of each and everyone

How can I mourn

For every man?

May I soon

Lie with them

"How can I go on, when all I have is a grave?

When one place is as good as another,

to lie down and belatedly join where I belong. Let it end here, with me."

This unearthly knell

A deadly gale, or

A grace of life?