Ashes

Across the eerie waters
Misty covered glass I spied
A sad procession snaking down
The dry and deathly trail
And as my telescopic eye
Focused on the marching line
It settled on the fallen crown
Now covered with a veil.

The heavy weight of mourning
Drew each head to face the ground
Muscles tight on bearers arms
Each body cold and frail
And through the muslin mist
The beating drums the only sound
Twenty boats out in the bay
All ready to set sail.

Ashes, take me back to earth
Water, quench my human thirst
Ashes, take me back to earth
Water, quench my human thirst.

My bones soaked in the icy cold
And fixed me where I lay
Until each vessel left the shore
And made a line for me
There never was a breeze
The leaves were silent all that day
They say the sails were ghosts
That stole the wind to set them free.

I lay transfixed
Felt nothing but the beating of my fear
As flames rose up and swallowed whole
Greatest of the fleet
The others circled round
And I heard chanting fill the air
The ashes lifted high
Were falling back into the sea.

Ashes, take me back to earth
Water, quench my human thirst
Ashes, take me back to earth
Water, quench my human thirst.