Gulp! - (Lol)

I wrote a book called ‘The Afterdeath’

With a thousand gory themes,

Of what takes place at your final breath

When you lie in your swirling dreams,

Your body hung by its fingertips

Between here and the place you go,

When the deed is done, and your race is run

Will there be no afterglow?

 

Will there be no afterglow, I said

With a place you can lay your head,

Up in the clouds and the stars somewhere

On a downy, cloudy bed?

To wake from the sordid human dream

That you lived, three score and ten,

Trying to make your way between

Your hopes and ambitions then.

 

But always thwarted, you don’t know why

For nothing would come out right,

And always hanging over your head

Are thoughts of that endless night,

That bright intelligence snuffed right out

That learning lost to the air,

Your body locked in a six foot box

In its final death despair.

 

I wrote of the ones who wake in dread

To the sound of the shovel’s spray,

Tipping that final dirt on you

As your coffin’s hidden away,

You thump and scream in your final dream

Kicking the bottom out,

With the coffin muffling shrieks and screams

When you want them to let you out!

 

It’s easy, while I am sitting here

To write of a man’s despair,

When he’s in the dark, can’t see a spark

And fighting for gasps of air,

Or maybe rather the sputtering jets

Of the crematorium,

As the box implodes and your body glows

Round your scared cerebellum?

 

So now that I’ve made you comfortable

Accepting your sad demise,

And the way that they will dispose of you

(Believe me, everyone lies!)

Take heart in the fact you’re not alone

That final terror will be

There at the end with everyone,

Including the author, Me!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[R Smith]

well David, you just became Edgar Allen Poe, Roger Corman and the voice of Vincent Price all rolled into one, The Premature Burial indeed hahahahaha (poor attempt at satanic laughter) seriously though a great story and narrative on our last breath, I really would love to hear Vincent Price read it though, fantastic!!!!!

[TL Boehm]

a fascinating macabre bit of poetry with a tasty bit of dark at the end. In the end they will dispose of you. How true. and unsettling to consider. Tongue in cheek with a bite. Nicely done.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

eerie, chilling tale...great write DLP...

[Frozen Eyes]

As brave as it sounds the thought is little scary too. We all know we'll not get out of life alive yet keep hoping for what god knows.. I love the way you said it. :)

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

Ah that earthly sigh towards the unknown and the very end, a perfected elegance can be found in this piece well done, great read.

[Marie]

David, you know what? I am not afraid of death. This is because I have never accepted the fact that I'm gonig to die. THough I have lost my parents, two husbands, many people who were important to me, still I just can't believe in it for myself.

[Valentine]

Sadly this made me think of my father when he had his stroke and then heart attack at home. lying on the floor, waiting for the ambulance, he started reaching up and talking to God. He was conversing like he was also being talked to. Until he passed on 3 days later, in the hospital room the feel of angel's wings brushed over my skin when they came to carry him Home. I mentioned the feeling later and others in the room felt the chill and then the brush of wings also. Thankfully my dad went to Heaven. He was laid to rest with no makeup ,his cheeks rosy and peaceful. We heard no knocking for him wanting to be let out. Interesting write, thanks for the memories. Kathie

[Barbz]

The sun is shining here most times, on this side of town. The news I read , the Obit, brought to my face a frown. For I read about the "curtains" a thought that brought me dread. Could not believe this man of fame, would think of himself Dead! The book that he read, The Afterdeath, brought thoughts of, not to live, perhaps he should have read one, titled, I've Got Much More To Give. What really brought such thought, Master............don't eat the same thing today......LOL!! Barbz

[MomzillaNC]

I hate being the first one to review something. Makes me feel both judgey and like I'm being judged. Sigh. My issues. :D

Another gripping tale… this one is deeply macabre, playing on all those fears we all still feel, even with the knowledge that modern funerary practices make it impossible to be buried alive. The worse you could face is to wake up on the mortician's table.

Oh, darn! Now I've given you a modern, more horrific idea! I don't know if I'd want to read that!

[Marie]

Morgan felt the sa=calpal's bite
And shrieked aloud in dread.
Quincy, M.D. looked at him.
"Be quiet now. You're dead."

See, he wakes up in the lab, and Quincy is performing an autopsy, removing one organ at a tme...

[MomzillaNC]

Oi! I remember that episode! My parents watched it and made us watch with them every week!

[MomzillaNC]

At least, I think I remember it… LOL. It's a theme I'm sure has been repeated far and wide!

[David Lewis Paget]

http://www.lulu.com/shop/david-lewis-paget/the-afterdeath/paperback/product-21801267.html