"The Land of the Dead", by 8th grade Camelot student Zachariah Claypole-White, won third prize in the Mary Chilton Award category (grades 6–8) of the North Carolina Poetry Society's student contest for 2009.
The land of the dead
It is a bleak place
set aside for the eternally
resting. The trees cling
to the last leaves of summer
like a man clutching
at the last spark of his life.
The bushes' roots selfishly cling
to their prizes, not wishing
to abandon them
to the mother.
The wind and rain lazily
sweep the graves, too tired
to exert their full wrath.
Lost in this place
searching for those
never known
yet known.
The tears of my predecessors
weigh my boots, pulling me closer
to the dead.
The grass is withered
like its occupants.
Although I never knew them
tears still mix with the rain.
I place a stone on the graves
just as we have always done.
We who walk
the land of the dead.
Zachariah Claypole White
November, 2007
revised September 28, 2008
