Imagined, Coming Upon A Grave

Stop, a moment, traveler from afar!
From afar you must come, for here things are
So far from each other that you cannot arrive
At anything from anything, and still be alive.
Kneel here beside my grave, and listen
To the tale that made my soul in life glisten.

A lady my brother loved- I loved her too-
And what could he- what could I do?
He brought her flowers; I brought her whim.
She thanked me, but preferred him.
It was unjust to deprive them of their love;
It was unjust to so damn me above.

Long ago they were wed, and died,
In an avalanche, upon a mountainside.
The whole town was shocked; I grieved,
But, somewhat secretly, I was relieved.
Could I have lived, had they returned,
And watched as their twin longing burned?

Then the first house in the town
Tottered, and smoked, and burned down.
All died in that house; children five,
And parents both, were burned alive.
The whole town was shocked; I stared.
Who could have done this? Who dared?

Then the second house fell in stones,
And still beneath it this day lie bones,
For all were inside it, and no one lifted
Or could lift the pile; not a stone shifted.
The whole town muttered; it was tragic.
I talked too, but to myself, of magic.

Then the third house in sickness fell;
All lived at matins; by vesper-bell,
All were dead and stinking of death,
Their lungs so filled they could not draw breath.
The whole town cursed; I shivered,
And in me something like madness quivered.

Then the fourth house all died at once;
Something that, perhaps, still lives and hunts
Into their family and their bodies tore,
Splattered the walls and the ceiling with gore.
The whole town lived in terror; I did not.
I knew something they had all forgot.

Then the fifth house simply vanished,
Like a demon by some wizard's spell banished.
Some claimed to have seen a weird light,
But it happened, mind you, on a moonless night.
The whole town moved away; but I stayed.
Something was there with me; I was not afraid.

I remembered, and sometimes spoke of,
The woman I had once come to love.
But I loved other things now: the curve of sky,
The stream that sings and never asks why.
The whole town was gone; I, without a friend,
In the spot stayed, and so met my end.

Go, traveler, now; who knows what tale
You have made up to explain this travail?
Of all I knew who died in my youth,
I was the only one who knew the truth,
And I took the truth with me to the grave,
With a soul that only that truth could save.