They came up to the casket
some of them just passed it
I barely recognized who they turned into
some said goodbye
some said see you soon
others whispered
I should’ve been there for you.
When a young person dies
everyone tends to realize
just how precious this life is,
but why because of this?
Why because I died
did you all realize
that we should watch our words
watch our actions
and even the lack thereof.
I’m sick of seeing people
I never even met.
How wrong is it that I am here
laying on my back
being showered by love
and loss
and hope
and brokenness
when I barely got acknowledged when I was alive?
I am sick and tired of seeing the young ones die because our words are too strong
and our hearts too hard
and our actions misleading
and our voices deceiving
and our intentions skewed
and our patterns all new
and our society demanding everything we have.
I am sick of the view
from the coffin in lot B
of the cemetery off county road 43.

she would
jog her
****** well
fight their
stake as
she find
rusty silique
in her
clam now
she was
finally here
and she's
torn to
digress him
why she's
opened any
incandescent door

Cremated Love

Two souls, dancing the times
One foot forward, two times
To the side, the other, and back
Back to each other’s arms
Took a step back, two, three
A stab to the heart, it was
The sounds of their footsteps
Towards their separate distances
As they danced, drifting away
Two, three, and more feet away

Two beings statued together, a light of the town
Crafting their silhouette, a shaft of light through the hall of fame
The talk of the town, fame has had its toll on their shine
Two, three, and more times, they’ve fallen to tame and shame
Tears flood what has turned to be flames
Like a waterfall falling from the rocks
Are the tears from the aflame eye sockets
Rumbles from the heart’s rhythms
As the mighty statue begins to tumble
Crumbles from emotional harbours
As the silhouette fades into grey shades
What used to be, now turning into ashes
Ashes that will never, in forever, release a phoenix
In a cemetery, cremated love lies hopelessly

Mongi C. Nkabindze

You're here.
I feel you
You're underground.
I feel you in the nature surrounding your grave

You're ashes now.
It's as if you never existed
only in memory now.

What color are your clothes now?
Are they still blue?
What do you look like?

You exist in the air around me
as I sit beside your stone
I'm the only one in the cemetery

Do you know these other people?
What's it like in that other dimension?
Are you still writing poetry?
Do you know you're dead?
Is it better?
Do you miss it?

I've written to you
I read you my letters
Talking to air that you occupy

I lean against your stones,
Feeling cradled by you
even though it's been years
since you disappeared.

You will always exist
I walk around the corner
to visit another friend.

How have you been?
I'm sorry I haven't thought about you in awhile
I cry
I don't want your memory to disappear

I slowly walk out of the graveyard
Feeling empty and whole
at the same time.

I'm not leaving you here
I'm breaking you out of this "beautiful" place
You're coming with me

Silently, my steps are creaking
in the dimming light at sight
and the dark is slowly speaking
from engravings in the night.

As to what are we, what do we
live for - for what to achieve?
Are we here to fight for freedom,
or to simply make believe?
Are we here to just be born
grow up, pass through puberty
grow old, poor and still unknowing
stating: "that's just life for me..."
"That's just life for me"-
a giant flash with all it's stakes
so live it like driving a car
and race through life without the brakes.
Pass everything: your friends, your kids,
your marriage, even those late night shifts.
Don't ever stop! Full speed ahead!
After all, life is the greatest of gifts...
Don't stop to think! You're number one!
The loser gets the second place!
And even so, as time goes on
these legs will reach the rusty brakes,
but they won't work, and in a flash
all life you had will skip your head.
Moments later - crash! The car then hits.
The race goes on, yet you lay dead.
Now you're a corpse inside a coffin
your body, like the wheel - it spins.
the race goes on, but in the end
the dirt is still the one who wins.

Silently, my steps are fading
far away from human sight
darkness falls on the engravings,
in this lonely, soulless night.

A long cemetery road separated
the rows of corpses underneath
tombstones from an untouched field
of wildflowers and wanderers

And I
walked on that road
in the middle,
not knowing which side I belonged on

HE took me
To the dirt road
Along the creek
The flow of time.

We met a child
Who can not swim strongly
But good at fishing.

He took me to the cemetery.
We saw
A child and his father pray
Visiting women
They are very dear

He pulled my hand
To the banana garden
Which bear fruit on long bunches,
And it knows
Will soon be cut down by a machete.

He was lying with me
On a night
And awakened by various things
The scramble wants to be a dream
In a rush sleep.