There I am, it's kind of late.
Shadows abound.
What madness is this that condemns me?
The muffled screams fill the air
on a strangely naked night.

Guilty as charged.
Yes, I did the deed.
The punishment will be soon and swift.
More than a sentence,
I'd say I've earned a page or more.
Send me off to the gallows.
I am ready.

For I do not cry when good men die.
and I do not weep for the pain I keep.
I cannot undo the nature of what I am.
I cannot forego that which has been done.

So throw me in the hole!
Just like the rest of them.
I'll rest quietly in the shallow muck.
Good and strong and noble.

What else can it be, on the deathbed you see,
but the ashes that billow from my eternal pillow.

No grace in this here.
But that's how it goes.
I never wanted anything special.
Remembrance is for the honored.

For me, the end is very different.
I get no eulogies or dirges.
No songs or poems.
Just a rugged damp hole.
And if I'm lucky, a tear or two.

But this is who I am.
And it's too late to go back.
The pain has suffocated me.