graves are silent in passing;
stone withers like snow
cracked and weathered: the horizon
pales in shades of blue.

Goodbye. A word that haunts. Echos through the dark and paralyzes me with fear, enough to tremble and shake similar to the way a weak hand grasps for months, clutching onto life. When you leave, how do you suppose you hear me. I shout and scream into the cemetery of everything that once was. The lesson of a lifetime is say goodbye early. Say goodbye to the possibility of departure and leave before they leave first. Thats how you say goodbye to a ghost, in a way that will haunt them to their grave.

The vineyard growing out
of decrepit stationmaster’s hovel flays
the skin of buses and trains alike
faces long and
pe eli  n   g.

Atop a rubber sea I wade,
sunlight ebbing awash
on my strong shoulders;
in pinks
purples
blue and green and grey.

The soot of early midafternoon chokes
up, curling down
my spine,
hug from a friend
in the skeleton of a regulation
seat my mind lays
to rest, soporific
sweet.

Here lie the ruins of a plainsman’s kingdom,
ghost fox says.
Here lie the dust
y wings of Corvus corax, grey
in age. Here lie the
loves and the
dreams and the
hearts of my
ancestors
wholly unholy in their pagan worship,
but:
the vineyard is a graveyard is a home
wild to hold
tame at heart
and there lies my body,
(anything I want it to be)
grapes a-swinging just out of reach-

The fox gets his prize
how sweet it tastes on my tongue.

Taken


In this graveyard I sit and inhale the smoke.
As I sit, I read names, dates and quotes.
He was this and she was that.
They didn’t escape death…that is all I know.


Roses among the moss, the raindrops begin to fall down;
I stare into the dying sunlight and see images through clouds.
Then I see another mourner, praying to God;
We are both dressed in black, but she is no Goth.
She is just lost and has lost someone she loved;
I will not disturb her in her time of grief,
But I will glance at the grave stone when she is gone
And I am heading home, past all the head stones.
What is this sadness that surrounds us all in this place?
They have all been taken away.


Etchings and numbers like nineteen forty seven;
Names no longer remembered now they have all risen to Heaven.
Families reunited, never truly divided;
Always nearby if needed, inside a guiding light.
I kissed a girl and I kind of liked it;
But now her kisses are bitter to the thought,
Now she has been taken from my life.


(C)2016 Aa Harvey. All Rights Reserved.

We've bin' in this graveyard
For many a year
So I cough
Politely
To sully the still
And I tender this query
To you're ever wilting ear
''Can you see through me now ?'

If this was the last day alive I'd press my lips to your temple, Id whisper my name hoping to make it eternal in the graveyard of the cosmos.