Tomb

Indian empress

In majestic palace.

Pharaoh,

Colossal pyramids and valley of kings.

Chinese emperor 

Under protection of enormous, imperial army.

Abbeys and churches,

Splendid, kingly.

Czech ossuary,

Decorative bones create glorious ambiance.

Immense Irish mounds,

Green and grand.

Parisian and Italian catacombs,

Lambent flames of candles illuminating.

Monuments to presidents and monarchs

Visited by heads of state.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Represents otherwise forgotten victims of wars past and present.

City cemeteries,

Vaults and mausoleums dot the landscape.

Family graveyards,

Tombstones detail ancestral history.

Solitary, unmarked graves

On purpose or not.

Mass graves,

One of the spoils of war.

A small, dark grotto,

Once covered with a rolling rock,

Now empty.

Its former resident

Watches over them all

From his vantage point,

Watches over the living

And the still entombed.

©Imbler, 2015

“Tomb” was the third poem I ever wrote.  It was composed in January, 2015.  Its development has an interesting beginning.  I had been working a crossword puzzle and came across the word ‘lambent,’ which means glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft flame.  The word immediately brought to mind the catacombs which serve as crypts in some places in Europe.  My thinking then jumped to different types of graves. It then jumped to listing types of graves from most magnificent to least (in terms of looking splendorous.)  As I worked through the progression, and more of the poem spread across the paper, I knew I needed a way to wrap it up nicely.  I don’t remember the exact point that it hit me, but I remember thinking that the poem would have a circular flavor to it.  Start at the most visually stunning tomb, the Taj Mahal, and end the poem with the most splendid tomb of all, in my humble opinion, the tomb of Christ.