Walking in the dead of night
Almost apprehensive of the sky
Stars sparkle in the black expanse
Black clouds go rolling by

As a cool breeze falls upon him
So too does a notion
That life is brief and fleeting
Like a wave upon the ocean

Then he must stand tall
Look the world in the eye
Master his own destiny
Not dwell on how or why

For this is not a dress rehearsal
He shall only have one shot
To make his mark forever
With the best that he has got

And if his best amounts to nothing
At least he will have tried
And that shall be his epitaph
After he has died

In his final moments
He clutched his sheet in fear
Staring at the wallpaper
He knows his time is near

The unshaded lightbulb
The dust around the room
Black mould in the windowsill
Adding to the gloom

Loved ones stand around him
For their tearful last goodbyes
Forever shall be without him
But he cannot reason why

His thoughts now are desperate
And nothing shall they gain
But to toy with logic, reason
Might help to ease the pain

The universe for him
Is not beyond the sky
For when his time expires
His universe will die

He recalls a varnished box
And now his fears somehow subside
It was stored in an upstairs cupboard
Where he sometimes used to hide

The distinctive smell of varnish
The rusty broken locks
Tins of enamel paint
Occupy the box

Time seems at a standstill
As he revisits his past
A time once thought forgotten
He prays this time to last

He opens up the fusty box
To take a look inside
His father's name inside the lid
Consumed is he with pride

His loved ones weep with sorrow
As he walks his final mile
His body still and lifeless
He exits with a smile

The man with the plastic face
He has cloudy, liquid eyes
His fibre moustache and the thick dense fog
Strengthen his disguise

As he stops to check the time
His circuits start to glow
Then a figure comes to greet him
With a face he used to know

It's a face in a leather case
It's a face he used to own
It's a face that moved through time and space
And now he's come to take it home

There was a subtle smell of sulphur
As he made time stand still
He unclenched his plastic hand
To expose a yellow pill

Then his sub processor skipped
To where it all began
To a time before his micro chips
When he was still a man