Cemetery Dreams

“Cemetery Dreams”

I’ve walked this road before
With the bones that lie beneath.
I clenched a sweet long ago
Between decaying teeth
While a song played in my head,
And I sang it to all the dead.
Today, I wonder what it meant—
When I longed to bathe in death
To make you see that I love you.

But you had no use for death,
And all I have is my sanity.
You dare to call me mad
When you did not know a thing about me.
I sang the song, calling out your name
But alas! you never came.
And I recite a letter you never sent
Upon my smoke-encumbered breath
As I walk this ground above you.

It’s alright. You did not know
That you were my friend.
You saw me not in your footsteps.
But I was behind you in the end.
I dreamed I’d touch your hand,
But I knew you never would understand
The way I watched from the shadows
As you walked across the street
To your home, where I would watch you sleep.

You never knew how I loved your heart.
 I thought I could control myself that day
But I sent you photographs of the dead
And you threw them all away.
Now I take pictures of your stone,
While I lie here, I lie here alone.
I pretend the wind holds our echoes.
Alas! this is the way we shall meet
While I watch you sleep in the deep.

© 2022 Marten Hoyle