Living Coffin Row

Beneath the crypt where shadows crawl
In death’s own chamber, darkened hall
They sit entombed, their flesh decayed
In coffins wrought by night’s cascade

Their eyes, unblinking, glass and cold
In silence, ancient stories told
Once men, but now, a cursed brood
Their veins entwined in shapes crude

Roots that writhe from flesh to bone
Deep beneath the crypt’s cold stone
And feed upon a blackened well
A nourishment distilled in Hell

No breath to stir, no pulse to beat
Yet life persists in death’s defeat
They grow, they stretch, and silently sigh  
Beneath the pale and bloodless sky

No clock may strike within this place
Where time’s retreat leaves not a trace
They linger, trapped, not dead nor whole
Bound tight by death, but still with soul

The crypt’s dark tendrils creep and bind
Tied fast to flesh, to bone, to mind
What horrid pact, what ancient blight
Condemned them to eternal night?  

Their hollow eyes, in terror wide
Stare endless into the other side
Where distant planets twist and burn
And lost dimensions writhe and churn

What darkened gods, what demon’s jest
Would grant them life but none the rest?  
They see what none should dare to know
The cosmic wheel’s unyielding woe

A choir now of silent screams
Their souls entwined in nightmare dreams
Forever cursed to watch the skies
Where stars blink out and darkness flies

The ancient stones beneath their feet  
Hum with a pulse, a dreadful beat
As something stirs beneath the earth  
That mocks all light and spits at birth

These crypts, no home for restful dead
Are chambers for the cursed instead
A living death, forever sealed
A wretched fate, their doom revealed

And in this place, no light may tread
No solace here for souls misled
Just whispers from the voided deep
Screams through  silence creep

An endless night, an endless wail
Where madness reigns, and spirits pale
No mercy here, no saving grace
Just dark, and roots, and twisted space