Cemetery Waltz

The gray graves provided

footing for my strolling

for the earth's blackened sheen

slipped and slipped beneath my feet

No moonlit beams unveiled

the names inscribed beneath,

for fog pervaded all the air

while rime turned stone to sleet

My trio of bells mimicked

past knelling and chimed blithely

while I tripped and snapped twig

cavorting lithely in silent din

Fallen branch, bough and snow,

ice-encrusted wreathes for bones

fell about my feet crunching

in the cemetery hallows

Epitaphs and paragraphs

frozen petals and obelisks

still in that wintry silence

of sailing wraiths in snowdrifts

Countless headstones bloomed

between sepulchers and crypts

their entrances chained against

daft fools such as myself

Every step a closer glance

to insights I nearly divined

beneath a starless sable sky

closer than ever to my eye

Sorrow could not be wrought

of such peace, so I thought

as I wound and wound around 

endlessly expanding grounds

Curious that I chose

to entreat neglected tombs

to accompany the phantoms

patrolling icicle vestibules

for I knew not a soul

as a mere walk and stroll

escalated into the cadaverous

celebration of those forgotten

within their black frosted vaults,

whom joined me in my cemetery waltz.