Scent of Death
You narrators from far, from my chamber I call. Take the story that I've told & may you tell it to all...
& so it began, that this poor little man
Took off through the bog with a rose in his hand
& a memory that was dazing like an opium plant
Setting sails on a ship that was hoping to strand
With a shovel & a flashlight he arrived at the graves
A scent of death all around him like a pious embrace
The headstone stood silently surrounded by haze
Loving words were forever but the body had changed
Through the sludge & the mire her scent appeared
Like a present sent from heaven to a friend so dear
As her fingernail protruded through her permanent case
Bearing nothing but a lament & the burden of days
He quickly grabbed his shovel as he dug into earth
& the smells of her demise mixed her love with his mirth
'Fore the pallid moon had brightened up the burial grounds
Her figure had been placed on the most sacred of mounds
She smelled like death!
Her maggot skin & carcass breath, she need not speak, my heart is deaf
Now shadows veil her darkened crest, Oh! Why am I in love with flesh
& there she lay like silver stars on planetary plates
Her face so full of death & time & capillary breaks
He examined her & cursed the skies, the vile, waning moon
The wrists that once were kissed were now two giant gaping wounds
The blood had run & fled from her & life had joined the stream
& the earth had drank & lulled her into blood-anointed dreams
The maggots had been first to feed on her & her alone
& even other graves sent whispers through their world of stone
Such beauty could not last, she was dead when she was born
Whoever falls in love with death repents for evermore
But little did the poor man know how fate would interrupt
His journey while he sailed as a stranger in her flux
I smelled her breath!
Those carcass eyes in lifeless nests, God help me as I rob her crest
Oh why am I in love with death, my sharpened love now parts her flesh
Thus death combined with life & musty air from six feet deep
& in her sleep she kept her screams but heard his whispered speech
Pregnant with his murder child, who'll come into this world & die
She then let out one perfect cry, & rain fell from a burdened sky
"As you are now, so I will be, so breathe once more & die with me"
The ground was wet & worms appeared, like nightmares from your worst of fears
The ground was dead, but more appeared, & listen - how they called him near:
"You poor man, you weak man, you've stolen her from us.
Now fly you must & follow us dirt-mowing birds of dust"
They ate his flesh & reached the bone, erected him a grieving stone
& once the grave was finished he would never ever leave his home
Veiled in black of death's disease, he lay in angst and ecstasy
& when I smelled the foul air I almost had her next to me
But she was north where he was south, unsure if he should grieve or shout
Decisions then for him were made as sainted maggots sealed his mouth
& never would he speak again, his travel had now reached its end
The worms were there for him to love if only he would be with them
With a howling scream her water broke she groped the earth to soothe the pain
Her strength was gone her blood ran dry & lifeless she still pushed in vain
One final thrust, her head swung back & grass met her succumbing brain
Her skull was cracked & she was dead no parents left to choose a name
In burning leaves they carried him. A funeral for sharing him, one single rose for burying
My newborn son will mark my grave, I did my best, in dark we lay
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