A Warning Solace

Nothing that breathed disturbs this enclave

As the monolithic cosmic millstone

Grinds ever onwards

Crushing meaning beneath cold stone

It is here that I lie

At one with the darkness

Where timelessness breeds tranquillity

And the ravages of frailty thrash

Against the walls

Of a reality long ago

Fractured and scattered

And yet... So slowly

It starts to slip away

(Draining, sinking)

My strength weakens

With each shuddering breath

With the fading of the mists

And the dying howls

Of the withering wilderness

Wreathed in decay

Solitude is torn away

My cries pierce the silence like arrows

As this refuge is rent asunder

The fragile fabric collapses

Realisation wracks the spirit

And I stare into the glittering eyes

Of yet more unbridled sufferance

Rending me

As this solace wanes, the wind grows colder

This once-verdant landscape now stands

Stooped and alien, stripped of spirit

Nothing remains to soothe a lamenting soul

What was once mine is no more

Ripped open and naked, I bleed

Beneath the wanton iron skies

That pour misery onto a hapless thrall

My nothingness exposed to all...

(So little now still stands

Scorched earth and desolation and legacy of shame

For which I now pass judgement through the vessels

Of a new and forlorn epoch)