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reflections on the cessation of life

i

lying and waiting for death
"it'll be a while", says the voices in my head -
meanwhile, unfamiliar nostaligic visions
are haunting my head!

got lost in the labyrinth in my backyard,
can't find my way out now,
where's the door?
(and who obscured obscurity?
i can't recognize him!)

there's an infestation of fleas
in the heart of the corpse,
herbs are growing in the backyard
of the insane asylum -
and i'm still lost in the maze!

"vituperative slugabed -
stop your kvetching!"

politicians reign like gods over an insane chess game

music is the deepest link we have to the past,
reminiscent smells bring back lost sensations

sometimes, i wonder if you knew it was your last night
did you die in your sleep, or was it painful and prolonged?
the smell of dead dogs was in the air,
aroma of cessations of life

collective consciousness expired,
there's a fire in my nose and my eyes melted

goodbye

ii

the day we found your death,
i thought my life had ended:
i never wanted so badly
to see you walk through the door

the day we found your death,
i found my death,
i found my death quietly sitting and waiting:
death is lying there waiting for me
"it won't be long now", say the spirits of the gods
meanwhile, familiar nostalgic visions
are haunting my head!

there are those who have entered into the realm of the dead,
those who have yet to enter the realm of the dead,
those who eat the flesh of the dead and of the living
and those who rule both the realm of the living and of the dead

iii

death follows like a black dove,
conquers all but that which is stronger
stranger in the night,
death follows like
a stranger in the night,
stranger in the night,
strangler in the night

they called him "the sea side strangler",
he always hung out around the beaches
"there are dead bodies in the dunes!"

he likes to face his victims,
stare into theirs eyes
as air is cut off,
nothing thrills him more

"does death excite you?"

just a boy, no more than seventeen
went for a walk
on a lonely and deserted beach

cigarettes, solitary meditation and a death by the ocean

Poetry by Thomas Perdue