DYER

The rest of the day passes by in a blur.

I'm still in a daze, not fully present, and not absent either.

Everyone comes to the graveyard to pay their last respects and leave after the burial rites are concluded.

With the tomb empty, and the candles put out, I stand in the dark, hallowed chamber alone.

The darkness swallows me whole as the stale, cold air attacks my lungs and nostrils. The air smells of earth and dust.

Staring into the darkness, for the first time today, my mind goes ...