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The Undertaker by Cadeem Lalor



The Undertaker


I used to speak with my family more, used to have more friends,

Over the years, they have drifted away,

More so than any other field, mine doesn’t make for good dinner conversation


Our mortality is undeniable, but it is still something many wish to ignore,

People will hear of loved ones dying, they select coffins and tombstones,

Yet they don’t want to know the details of what happens to the person they mourn for


Perhaps I should not blame them,

This was never a field I saw myself in, but sometimes it only takes one day to change someone,

That one day when I waited in vain for my father to pick me up from school


Some like to fight the pain of a loved one’s death by running away from it,

That was never an option for me,

I had to learn more about the monster, in order to become less afraid of it,

My fear evaporated and understanding trickled in to take its place,


My father always shared tales of Greek mythology with me when I was a child,

I was entranced by Hades, the God of the Underworld, who presided over the souls of the dead

With my father’s death I remembered his words,

Hades' role was one that was given to him,

A role that he fulfills despite the stigma associated with it


I laid my father to rest, and many others have followed in his wake,

Every day, new bodies are added to my collection,

Some are natural, the inevitable result of a body wasting away over time,

Some fell to disease, whether it could have been avoided or was simply a fate they were doomed to from birth


Then some deaths are the intended result of my new clients,

There is no pattern to the madness,

Young or old, beautiful or homely,

The only reason they met death, was because they went looking for him,

I will never understand it, but I do not try to


It is a fact many are not happy with their lives,

It is also a fact that those people make my job easier,

After all these years, I have never lost sight of my own fate,

One day, I will be the newest resident of my own establishment,

Death has built my home and my empire,

When he comes for me, I shall embrace him like an old friend



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