"Remains From The Grave"

Intense odor in the nightime air
The smell of death everywhere
Forgotten names etched in stone
'Neath the dirt in a pile of bones

Cease my steps by a willow tree
Full of wonder I suddenly see
An umarked stone caked in mold
Seems unjust the name untold

I wipe it clean with my hands
Expectations don't come as planned
This bothers me to no end
There's not a name to my friend

At last I see this stone so old
Worn from years of heat and cold
A mystery lies this underground
Killng me to know who I found

I bend down and on my knees
Dig right near the willow tree
Under moonlight guiding me
Digging deeper to eternity

Unearthing dirt with my hands
I have become a haunted man
Digging till this truth be told
Past tainted soil and stinking mold

When I reach the sacred tomb
I feel a rush of pending doom
I stare down at the wooden box
Its lid shut tight with iron locks

I give those rusty chains a shake
So old and weak they start to break
The jangle of this ghostly sound
Prompts the grave sites all around

For one small bit I turn my head
I thought I heard the living dead
Must be me, all in my brain
If I keep this up I'll go insane

I pry the lid to see who's inside
My eyes start growing very wide
For when I come face to face
I see a sight I can't embrace

A corpse so deeply in decline
Barely held by a brittle spine
A tattered shirt with ruffled cuffs
Tired trousers that look so rough

The sunken hollow of his eyes
Stare up at me with despise
Boney hands rising from his chest
Start to finger this unwanted guest

Again I feel an unearthing quake
Graves around me start to shake
I climb out from his sacred home
And find that I am not alone

All his neighbors gather round
Creep up on me without a sound
Corpses rotten just like he
Living this life of eternity

They all wear faces of revolt
I fail at my attempt to bolt
All around me, oh so near
They lead me to my new frontier

They take me back to my friend
This is where my life will end
They tuck me in beside his bones
And buried 'neath his umarked stone