Horror Poetry: Dig Me Up and Start Again

#horror #poetry #amwriting #jjreichenbach #digmeup

Death has never been so romantic
As it is in your arms.
Bury me,
Please.
Then dig me free,
And we'll start again...

Dig Me Up and Start Again

The dream comes in loops and swirls,

Only it isn’t a dream.

There are splashes of color and

Abrupt blank pages that are always

More intimidating than they should be

But such is life, I suppose.


The hours blur together here.

The air is dry in the husks of my lungs

And above me the sun bears down,

Almost cruel in its once-nurturing warmth.

Stand beneath the light too long, you burn.

That’s just the way it is.


It always stays the same,

And I’m always here,

Alone,

Waiting for you to find me

Beneath the dirt.


It stung my eyes at first, but I don’t feel them now—my eyes, I mean.

There are only crawling things where flesh once was,

Most of it eaten away, ravaged, and my thoughts are all that remains.

It’s been so long, I don’t remember what I was waiting for.


At first, I felt the sun

Warm

And the rain

Cool

But now they are only phantom sensations on skin I don’t have.


I’m not sure what is real,

What is imagined,

If I am even here at all.

But still I feel that I must wait.

For what,

I don’t recall.


Days pass, maybe years, probably decades.

The earth stirs above me and the darkness shifts away.

The light would be blinding if I still had eyes to see it.

I can feel the fresh, clean air wrap around my bones,

The gentle hands that lift me.


Long past saving, I’m not expecting salvation,

But it comes anyway.


The cold dirt and crawling things that had long been my companions

Are ripped away.

Though I loathed them, some twisted part of me

Longs for their return,

For the comfort and reassurance,

Of the devil that I knew.


Your fingers brush the dirt from my bones,

A soft caress,

Like a fleeting kiss along my jaw where my lips used to be,

And I think to myself how odd this is,

That we should meet again this way,

After all this time.

And I remember

It was always you I was waiting for.


I wonder if you still think I’m beautiful,

If my curves and lines still take your breath away.

You gasp as your fingers lace through the dirt-encrusted necklace

Still clinging to my spine

And I think,

Yes,

Still.


There are answers here in the dirt.

There is stillness, but also longing.

I want to tell you all of this,

To share the things I’ve learned.

I think you’d want to know

But I lack a throat for words to form in,

So they only drift away,

Unspoken.


Maybe you knew all along that this was how it would be

Between us.

I can’t wash the sight of you from my mind,

Even with my brain long since rotted,

The smell of your cologne,

The pressure of your lips against mine.

You always burned so bright.


Am I still in your thoughts as you are in mine?

Does the scent of putrefaction draw you closer

Because it’s mine?

Will you kiss me again,

Soft

Slow

With the same tenderness as you did when you took my last breath?


Death has never been so romantic

As it is in your arms.

Bury me,

Please.

Then dig me free,

And we’ll start again. 


JJ REICHENBACH