The Haunted Lantern

The Haunted Lantern

Once long ago when souls were lost
Each night they would light a lantern
They would pick a poor unknowing soul
To carry it through the town and out towards the grave yard
A place where all souls were bound
But once the souls from around followed the lantern out of town
Once they reach the grave yard in the dead of night
They were summoned into the lantern
There their souls would fry
But their cries would shatter the lantern
Killing the poor unbeknown soul
Who foolishly carried the lantern so?
Soon word spread like a plague
And no one would pick up the lantern again
Causing the town to be over ran by souls lost on their way home
Screams of terror echoed out in the night
Howling dogs giving aid to this fright
But no one would lift up the light
To take them away from their flight
Until one small child who was quite ill
Struck a match of pure gold
Holding his breath as the winds did growl
He touch it to the wick by the hooting of an owl
As he held the lantern aloft
He broke into a fit of coughs
Slowly he began to move through the rotted streets
Seeing haunting eyes of everyone he did meet
Soon the whole town was following him over cobble stone
As they move they would wail and moan
As the night skies begin to give away to day
The smallest of them all lead them all towards the graves
For the down had succumb to a deadly disease
He had been left all alone one his mother’s last breath was a sneeze
Once there pass the gates of the old cemetery
He opens the lantern and blows out the light
As the souls look upwards towards heavens that dark, dark night
Three days later they came and burnt the town down
The scrapping of a shovel was the only sound
As they buried the small boy in hollow ground