I woke amidst an all consuming blackness
A void so empty as to be the death of light
And in that darkness knelt the giant Atlas
Shoulders burdened by the weight of spite

His steely heart was sinking
Deep into that primal black abyss
Yet his eyes stood unblinking
His pain was the absence of bliss

Entombed between heaven
And the sovereign earth below
The spheres on his back an emblem
Of the joy he would never know

His barren eyes were a memory
Sockets where passion had died
Empty lids long lost in reverie
The last of his tears had dried