This is chilling.

In places the punctuation makes it feel like a mantra. Something that is chanted under the breaths of people who lurk near graveyards.

So many good ideas here, wrapped into one. I like your extensive description of the process, early in the poem.

"The ground will
swallow wood and nails, chew it up, grind it to
dust, and the grass will grow and die above it."

I have never thought about burial in this sense. You made it seem even more grim than I thought previously.

The ending was phenomenal. Wrapping up the poem by bringing to light the thoughts and feelings of the gravedigger.

A very enjoyable to read, especially with all of he unanswered questions at the end! Definitely a great piece of horror poetry. :)

Now I wonder...where do we go after the ground swallows us whole?

:O I am positively speechless Sibs...
How dark and eerie, what a thought to have, and what a way to express it...
The process of a gravedigger's thoughts...just WOW...

I often wonder on my own burial, although I'd rather be cremated because I can't bare to think of my bones rotting underground and people visiting my grave on birthdays, anniversaries...to grim a thought...
but WOW again, speechless

And then sybs doesthis thing
where she paints the scenery so vivid in your mind
you feel as if you were standing there next
to someone,telling them this.
unaware that it sound's like a poem

You two are standing there,
Seeing the man dig a grave.
and you're talking and someone
wrote everything you said and
it turned into this.

grr, how did I miss this before.

I am sick and tired of how good you are
okay.

no joke baby, joke...

such a creepy little write I love it.