Calloused palms and round shoulders Mud clad with dirt and sweat From long days alone in this darkness In tiny rooms of black and crumbling walls Beneath the grey sky Toiling day and night, To open wide the great mouth of the earth To take back what once was dust And wo will return to dust
All now are ashes, ashes And they all fall down
Brought upon a decrepit cart Of rotting wheel and crooked shaft These twisted shapes of sallow limb Through sunken trampled paths of mud They do not feel, this one last embrace As I carry them, one by one, to rest And I sprinkle lime upon their faces Those once loved, once hated Those of blood and kin