Shadow Upon the Wall

Dance with the shadow upon the wall
Decay by the decade, resisting its call
Howl of the void: dissolution of all

This fork in the road, the familiar weight
Of a choice lade on strings of fate
Doubt takes hold, familiar embrace
Echo on stone tiles, I pace

A siren’s song to silent abyss
How it brims with black oil, dribble, and spit
So rotten a place, for all my preacher’s wit

O’ Forgotten vagrant of aberrant halls
The grudging gnomon on labyrinth walls
A maze so bleached in consuming flame
I’m devoured of all but shame

After a lifetime chasing the rapture
Grains of Edith are all I scatter
With no sign yet of foul hope’s greener pasture

For far too long, I’ve sought that end
An escape from the maze by a savior’s hand
This shadow now cast, Messiah arrives?
Peace for a pariah in the Creator’s eyes?

So though this apodictic shadow gives stay
Its vapid howls evoking dismay
It is my bassal instincts I must betray

To erase my fear of nothing
To erase my fear of self
Embrace finality, her long awaited kiss
The endless echo of eternal bliss

Step by step, the looming cure
One foot in, filled with fear
Darkness yields to a cracked black mirror

The hollow reflection of a faltering ghost
The grim reminder of my crumbling host
Rending flame doth lash its spine
A farewell’s kick, this was by design

Other posts like this: