[ The old gravedigger ]

The old gravedigger
Presses into the earth
He tasks and toils
His job since his birth

Duty, tradition
Honour, success
This is what
His skinny bones dress

They dress thoughts
Memories, too
Of all the years
He scavenged for food

His hair is wiry
Unclean, undone
His wife is long gone
For her he had sung

His body is pale
Famished is he
But he lets none
Give him pity

A proud specimen
Of the human race
Of the dream he failed
Somewhere in the chase

His long fingers covered
With ragged cloth
From dead men's bodies
Holed by moths

A cap of faded red
With Christmas trees faded
Because somewhere, oh somewhere
By sorrow he was raided

His large ears
Drooping with age
And as a sick joke
Not even a sage

None talk to the fellow
He has no family
He is the last
The rest; his to bury

A tattered overcoat
Over nothing he wears
Buttoned to the top
The least of his cares

Boots of grey
Shredded, well-worn
And the edge of the footwear
Frostbitten toes now adorn

He trumples out
Out to the grave
The next man dead
Put in the earth to save

The hole dug
None for the funeral
Save a priest and himself
Staring out from his skull

Eyes alone
Tell the passage of time
And rarely enough
One can find

Someone truly dead
Walking amid strife
It's a sad thing
Those defeated by life

They pace along
Glazed over eyes
Staring oh staring
With those non-seeing eyes
Glaring oh glaring
With those long-blind eyes

And as the preacher
Says the final words
The gravedigger mumbles
Out his words

His voice raw
From disuse for 12 years
He looks in the casket again
And his eyes gain tears

Yes, those eyes
Those dead, solemn eyes
They rip into life,
Soar one last time

From memories of memories
Of memories of old
From memories of memories
Of those he once told

"I'll love you forever,
I'll love you for now
I'll love you forever,
You can't imagine how."

He remembers when
He was a child
With his parents and sister
Ah, his sister so mild

Playing in fields
Dancing with a daisy
Chasing butterflies
On those days so lazy

He remembers when
He was still young
With his dear wife
Breathing with lungs

He remembers that day
When his child was born
He remembers the smile with which
His face was adorned

He remembers those
Moments he was distraught
When he buried his child
Who would soon rot

A vehicle accident
As his child ran into the street
To grab his bright red ball
His birthday present treat

He held his son
Limp in his hands
He held his remorse
Earth; a merciless land

He attended with wife
Buried his boy
No tears of sorrow
No tears of joy

Then his wife
Of disease she died
In this far away land
He still hadn't cried

He remembered life
He remembered loss
He remembered love
Now there was chaos

No. Serenity
All that stayed now
Between him and the grave
All was set out

And he looked in that wooden
Box as he sighed
At his little sister
The last one had died

His teeth clenched tight
His eyes flickering life
He closed them and did something
He hadn't done through strife

He cried.

He cried for his sister.
He cried for his son
He cried for his wife
(She was the one)

And he cried for his father
He cried for his mother
He cried for his hopes
Swept out by another

He wept for his soul
He wept for himself
He wept for his selfishness
Alone, by himself

Crippled with grief
The man remembered
As a boy
The bugs dismembered

The first words he spoke
The hug for his sister
Then he bent low to the corpse
With anguish he kissed her

His face was mangled
With memories of pain
And memories of sunshine
Memories of gain

He remembered his puppy
He remembered his school
He remembered all the simple things he had ignored
When he was a fool

For missing the moments
That life gave him
For the failure to ever
Act upon whim

To seize the day
As Carpe Diem doers do
He gnashed his teeth for the life
In a trash can he threw

The gravedigger's eyes
Filled one last time
With life
With love
With moments passed by
But most of all
Above all else

And one last time.
One last time he uttered
With his raw, coarse voice
He whispered, he muttered:

"I'll love you forever,
I'll love you for now
I'll love you forever,
You can't imagine how."

And the gravedigger hugged his sister.
Alone.
By himself.