he woke up in a coffin
dark and terrifying.
it wasn’t a nightmare;
it was horrifyingly
real.
claustrophobic
he panicked
and screamed
and screamed
till his lungs
almost burst.
he scratched
the coffin frantically
in his crazed,
screaming state
trying in vain
to open it.
but the weight
of six feet
of freshly
shoveled earth
kept the
coffin hermetically
sealed and
the horror
engulfed him.
he panicked gasping
for his dying breath
over and over,
his heart pumping
like an overworked
failing piston,
and he mercifully died
of a massive heart
attack.
and he found freedom
from the coffin
as his spirit rose
out of the coffin,
out of the grave
and into the light
of the afterlife.
bob boyd
