A Question of Fate

You only can die but once, they say,

There isn’t a second time,

We carry fears all along the years

When we think, which day is mine?

We envisage that marble headstone

That’s indicative of our fate,

Standing erect in some unknown field,

And wonder about the date.

How often we hear that someone said

While trying to be more than brave,

But shuddering at the thought of the dead,

‘Someone just walked on my grave.’

It creeps on up, the length of your spine

The shiver that never ends,

Bringing a list of your sins to mind

With no time to make amends.

You think of that open casket,

And lying there sightlessly,

So all can stare, and look at you there,

‘I’m glad that it isn’t me.’

We wonder if we will hear them sigh

About all the good we did,

Or even know, if terror will grow

The moment they close the lid.

I think about Averill Crombie

Who said that she knew the date,

And suddenly died as she sat wide-eyed

Poking the fire in the grate.

We all went along to the service,

To say our goodbyes, as we should,

But then our hair, stood up in the air,

On hearing three taps on the wood.

We scrambled to open the coffin,

To find her still breathing in there,

And then she began to start coughing,

Sucking in lungfuls of air.

She tried to climb out of the casket

With many a cuss and a curse,

But then must have blown a gasket,

So we carried her into the hearse.

You only can die but once, they say,

There isn’t a second time,

She knew the date, it was simply fate

But the first time blew her mind.

I still see them lower her into the ground

When she’d died, just twice, perhaps,

But I couldn’t swear, when leaving her there

That there weren’t three ghostly taps.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Tony Jordan]

This is a shiver-generator itself DLP.
I think they used to put a bell above ground or a breathing tube from the coffin to the ground level in case some were not actually dead (probably urban myths).
Loved the dark humour of this and the ending my friend.
:D

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Sounds like they should've used a safety coffin...Great story David.

[T.S. Sky]

A ghostly tale sure to give shivers up the spine.

[Coyote Poetry]

A very nice poem shared my friend. If we died twice. Maybe we would be more playful. I like the tale and the ending. Thank you David for sharing the amazing poetry.
Coyote

[Tate Morgan]

A morbid tale of woe david

[Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn..]

Magically wonderful, David ... A treasure of poem that speaks much more truth than the superstitious and religious realize ... Enjoyed every single word of every single line ...

[B]

Death is a right
just like living is one
We dont know when or how
but a healthy mind welcomes it
the idea of coming back from death is but fiction

I enjoy your work
makes me think quite a considerable amount