All I Ever Knew Lie Dead

"Through blood and thorns I wandered,
freezing, aching, bound for a ruined cathedral below.
All is dead, look! Only rust, and debris,
and shells of stone remain, drowning in ashes, a
s if we had never been. Everyone I had ever known.
Everyone I'd ever meet.
Everyone I ever loved.
Gone with the centuries, lost under a sea of ashes."

Only now when every chance
To belong
Is bitterly gone
I feel I do

For the very first time
I understand
The gift we had
Now forever gone

All I ever knew lie dead
And their epitaphs the ashes guard
Must I live to mourn the world
Or find reunion once the ashes part

For I am chosen
To speak
At the open grave
Of each and everyone

How can I mourn
For every man?
May I soon
Lie with them

"How can I go on, when all I have is a grave?
When one place is as good as another,
to lie down and belatedly join where I belong. Let it end here, with me."

This unearthly knell
A deadly gale, or
A grace of life?