Deadly

I said that we shouldn’t place it there

When first we surveyed the town,

The only place for the dead, I said,

Is six feet underground,

They shouldn’t be way up there on a hill

When it rains, their bones will leach,

And run down into the drinking water

Pumped on up from the beach.

But no, they wouldn’t listen to me,

The Town and the Council Jerk,

He said, ‘we’ll set it up in the trees

I think that that will work.’

So the town was built on the valley floor

And the dead stuck up on the hill,

I told them what I had said before

When the first became so ill.

The older ones were the first to go

They’d fade away in the gloom,

There wasn't enough flesh on their bones

To warrant a marble tomb.

But then the young had begun to fade

Were beginning to be so ill,

That soon the hearses making their way

Were all lined up on the hill.

The population began to grow

But not down there in the town,

The figures seemed to reflect and show

They were six foot underground,

And then the copse of surrounding trees

Began to glow in the night,

Give off a pale evanescent glow

Some said was blue, others white.

When lightning struck in that grove of trees

It forked and struck on the hill,

And burst some bodies, with their disease

From coffins, wriggling still.

I heard reports of a walking corpse

That tried to kick in a door,

And when they saw who the corpse had been

They found he’d lived there before.

I said that we shouldn’t place it there

When first we surveyed the town,

The only place for the dead, I said,

Is six feet underground.

The town has paid for the Council Jerk

Who buries them up there still,

On days that the dead come walking down

From the cemetery, up on the hill.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[TPK Stories]

Another good tale...David...

[Coyote Poetry]

I enjoyed this tale.
"On days that the dead come walking down
From the cemetery, up on the hill."
When the dead rise-up. I is time to move. Thank you my friend for sharing the amazing poetry.
Coyote

[D Connolly]

I love your rhythm. I like to visualize your poems and you make it so easy! I smile when I read them :)

[Avinash]

This is how horror stories are written. Agrees to both logic and entertainment.

[Jane Winters Rogers]

The walking dead heading toward the town.....spreading disease and fear! Vivid oppressive atmosphere of gloom and doom...

[Valentine]

Whew, this one fits right in with October and the coming Halloween. Hope none of then end up at my house. Valentine