The Christian Cemetery

I don't normally consider myself a poet, but I was inspired to write this after my husband and I visited the stunning Christian cemetery in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia in December 2006.

I stepped through a gate in Penang

and entered a world of departed souls.

 

The softest carpet of green underfoot,

the darkest forlorn branches overhead,

my wandering revealed a landscape

of most stunning neglect.

 

Moss and decay reign

in decadent and supple glory;

a possessive layer

of discarded time.

 

Populated with mottled stone--

shrines, containers, remembrances

leaning, broken, stoic

weathering the years.

 

Within those walls

hushed peace prevails,

and all those who reside there

whisper crumbling into dust.