I dream,
Let me slumber, kind heart.
Stare into the fire,
Burn your eyes with the truth.
As a falling star turns to dust,
Dreamers will awake
To the sound of an ending world.

I cry,
Sing to me, minstrel.
A tear will flood this barren land
Our hearts have run dry of love.
Listen as the sisterhood prays,
Shouting out to the gods
That forgot us.

I crawl,
In the dark, take me.
These wounds have turned septic,
With the poison in our veins.
Read my lips as I sing of a battle,
A page out of an endless book,
Written with the sins we bled.

I forget,*
Enlighten me, lost soul.
Have the gates been closed,
Have we lost all hope?
Blood and dust,
Pain and misery,
Where have all the good men gone?

The Vault stands resolute
Against acidic Time.
It must have much to say.
There is much it must have seen.

It's steady, stony gaze
Is all that now remains
To stand guard over nothing;
Duty-bound to stay.

What resides within?
It is aching to become known.
What resides within?

We rush the beckoning gate,
We push and pry and pull.
Today is a first for the Vault:
For the first time it loses a fight.

The darkness confronts us,
Accusing and severe.
Apprehension crawls up our spines:
What has been hidden here?

What resides within?
It is aching to be known.
What resides within?

We set foot inside,
Our steps unnervingly loud.
The cold sun nips our heels.
The darkness caresses our brow.

What's that ahead?
I believe it is light.
The faintest of glimmers:
Thin golden thread.

What resides within?
It is aching to be known.
What resides within?

With the greatest of caution
We open this new door.
Beyond is a strange old creature,
Back to the wall, sitting on the floor.

His flesh is pale and creased,
But his eyes are anything but idle.
"What is this place?", we ask.
His answer comes with a smile:

"This is Man's Vault.
It is a reservoir of what we were
Long before the missiles or the disease
Or by both we all were burned".

"Who are you?"

"I am the Curator, the Chronicler.
This place is of my own work.
I've spent day and night here,
Building it with record, picture and book."

"What may we do with it?"

"That is for you alone to decide.
The collection must pass to new hands.
My purpose here has been served.
In this present realm I will not much longer bide."

On concluding his final, heavy quatrain,
He breathed his long life out.
And the liveliness from out his eyes did drain

For several minutes, we stood in silence.
As a weight pulled down on our hearts.
A race had died before our eyes,
And left to us its inheritance.

[Dead. It's all dead.]
____

The world lies frozen
At our feet.
Rusted monoliths
Stand watch.

The bones lie scattered
In the street.
Wrapped in burnt,
Decaying cloth.

Air echoes with
A deathly peace.
The empty roads
Are long un-crossed.

As we walk on,
Instruments scream:
"There's danger here,
Please don't proceed."

Nothing's here but
These machines,
Screaming signals
To our feeds.

On this harsh day,
Lonely shadows play:
The watermarks
Of a forgotten age.

Glowing decay
And burnt-out plague.
And mysterious vaults
Locked fore'r away.

Morning coffee on a Sunday when
We don't go to church. We never do.
We will paint a still life of the stillest life
When time cannot be kept; it can only be seen.
And the dust will gather, as dust it ought to do.
It will cover us, monochromatic,
But skin is dust too. And so we wait and wait
And bombs will drop and Earth will shake but we
Will not be taken as we sit on the end of the world
Together, morning coffee in hand as the sunlight
Bounces off your skin in the most perfect way.
Nothing exists outside of us, or if it does
We will not open our eyes to it. Dust will settle,
And we will settle that we will be dust together someday.

found in my pocket, written somewhere in the past (not) perfect.

Cycles
cycles of sleep
cycles of life
cycles of the sun and the moon

one day
they'll break down
and then?