Skeleton of Paris

TO PRESERVE YOUR HEALTH
   YOU MUST RESERVE YOUR DATE AND TIME
TO ENTER THE EMPIRE OF DEATH

“Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la mort!"

      Sign in Paris Catacombs

SKELETON OF PARIS

i dared each dank step
into the catacombs of Paris
thank the Lord
each step was not
creaking bone

i’d descend, of course
my choice, my feet
move into the nether
the deep dark secret tomb
a heavy door
surreality adorned

below the stinking streets
the foul history
of death

dredged up
from six feet deep
dusted and cleansed
the mandibles,
joints, heartless
bones

the boneyard quarry
accentuated death
having a new spin
on “putting our heads together,”
a collaboration of dust

the bleak hallway, I dare
not touch, i cross myself
ashes to ashes, dust to dust
attempting to stay in the center
of the narrow way

O the clink and clank
the synergy
that will fuse these bodies together
at the end of time

who will be the first to awaken?
will he or she faint away
as they discover
their dissected bones?

The artful remains of Robespierre, Lavoisier,
Danton - the dearly beheaded come to life,
guests of downtown…way downtown Paris.

Upwards of seven million squeezed together.
The leap of disease…the health crisis relieved.

1/13/2022

Copyright © | Year Posted 2022



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Date: 1/16/2022 7:47:00 PM
Reads like an Edgar Alan Poe special. Grisly enough for me! ~ gw
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/17/2022 6:02:00 AM
And it really is! You don’t want to touch the bones…respect. Eerie!
Date: 1/15/2022 5:20:00 PM
Hello, Kim. The "Paris Catacombs" were new to me. You surely wrote a fantastic ghost story. Blessings ~ Debra
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/15/2022 5:34:00 PM
Thank you, Debra!
Date: 1/14/2022 11:26:00 PM
A bit spooky, and scary, intensely informative and thought provoking - I think that in the rest of Europe and South America, one would stumble upon the like. Beautifully written, Hugs and blessings, Jennifer.
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/15/2022 5:34:00 PM
Thank you, Jennifer!
Date: 1/14/2022 12:39:00 AM
I've been to Paris several times. Never heard there were catacombs there. Pity Hugs
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/14/2022 6:27:00 AM
Oh yes! You never know what’s beneath your feet.
Date: 1/14/2022 12:26:00 AM
I'm on a learning curve here, Kim, love the story and the poetry.
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/14/2022 6:27:00 AM
Thank you, Harry!
Date: 1/13/2022 7:06:00 PM
Wow! Extraordinary writing...I am shaken to my chilled, creaking bones; brought to life by this poem, a sense of total, yet wreathing death -- death that has sat so long unrequited, it is the epitome of tingling, ever present morbidity. Alive with sense of a damned humanity...yet to find their penitent way back to God. Great writing! A Fav.!
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/13/2022 8:02:00 PM
So good to belong to God…he’s got us. Thanks, Joe!
Date: 1/13/2022 1:05:00 PM
Never visited the Paris catacombs –for personal reasons. Kim, your knowledge of the revolution and certain of its famous (or infamous) leaders impressed me among other great lines and expressions in this poem. Well done. / Maurice
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/13/2022 5:17:00 PM
It is surreal! We happened upon it.
Date: 1/13/2022 10:25:00 AM
A DNA garden yet to be harvested! Aloha!
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 1/13/2022 12:48:00 PM
Wow, right?!
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