I followed lost souls trying to find their way out of the city.

They attuned their silence

To the eerie tinkering of bells.

A slight gust of wind posed risk of obliteration,

Softened the crunch of October’s brittle leaves.

Blue shadows enshrouded me—

I saw the undertaker lurking in the fog,

Hooks for hands,

Shovels for feet.

He started to dig a sinkhole

For the earth to take me in as her dust.

Buried alive to unbury what’s been killing me lately.

My pine box will go unfulfilled for another day.

My tomb without an epitaph.

I trekked the underworld caverns

Until I reached an opening in the space between the living and the dead.

I poked my head out

To intoxicate my senses with fresh air.

It is brighter up here—

A world in full color.