salt and iron:

I saw it at the bottom,

where blood pools deep.

It was a reminder of the sea,

I carried in my veins.

Under layer after layer of earth.

It felt just like a blanket, a hug.

Death was to be peaceful,

but oh how we’ve strayed.

Lost again, burrowing in.

Settling beneath a pile of lace.

Enough light bleeding through

to envision being buried alive.

The truth tasted like a lie,

sitting heavy on my tongue.

A coin of silver in my mouth,

a deadman’s pocket money.

Salt and iron,

fire and earth.

The dead have long laid here.

Returned to the earth.

The noble and the heretic,

sewn together with hyphae.

Brothers at last,

in the oneness of the end.