Every scream left an echo
Rippling through my mind
I held my breath
Hoping the veins in my neck would  unveil my every thought
I had been bluffing far too long
Playing a game with a deck of spades
I was unprepared
Young, naive, shamefully virginal
I watched myself in the reflection
I smiled
Why was I smiling
I looked away and with a gasp I saw it was me
It was me
I held my breath
I jumped
My feet tore through the glass
My body seemed to rupture as the cold enveloped me
I held my breath
Turning my head to the sky, I opened my eyes
There I was looking down at the body below
And I smiled
I couldn't look anymore
I couldn't watch
I couldn't face myself again
I had to breathe
I ****** in the water
And with my resolve
I prayed for my mother
I prayed for God
I prayed for someone to reach down and pluck me out
I looked up one final time
And she jumped.

It was the way your body drifted closer to mine
Again and again
I became aware of the veins in your wrists
The blood
The rhythmic pulse of your eyelashes
The ragged cream of your skin
I knew this couldn't be action
No, this was a reflex
But I didn't care
I was awake

I became whole
But my body was broken
Ridden with age,
I grabbed my last token

Into the machine
My luck was spent
The scythe to my back
To Hell I was sent

Hell is a hole
Hell is a mountain
Whether you fall
Or whether you found it

You climb and you reach
But the air just gets thinner
You grind at your teeth
But you are the dinner

You fight and you wrythe
But the chains cut you deeper
You find what was lost
And why you can't keep her

I left my soul
In a devil's arcade
'Neath a pile of clubs
Hearts diamond and spades

I tasted the blood
And sulfur and ash
The wine hit my teeth
Like a tamer's quick lash

My body was broken
Whole was I made
When I sold my soul
In the devil's arcade

The consequences of my infinite vanity
Was the realization of my mortality
I wished to be young and free
But age has taken me by little surprise
The whisps of gray tangled around my face
They engulfed me
Like the riverbeds in my cheeks
The ivory in my teeth
My children watched the ticking clock
Hungry
The clock strikes 12!
She's dead!
But I can never die
I took then by surprise
I clawed my way from the grave
The dirt in my teeth tastes like copper and old bandages
I was consuming myself
The nips
The tucks
The folds
The lifts
They all came crashing down on me
Down on my head
I'm down on my head

When the world breaks
And the sky falls
When the sun expands
And engulfs the moon
Will you be the one to carry out the final blows?
Will you run from the flames?
Will your final words be sweet goodbyes?
Or will a battle cry rip from your lungs

Will you become
Or will you be?