It felt like the ocean meeting a cliff.
I was the water; you were the stone.
I was trapped, between oblivion and a hard place.
Now that years have passed, without you near,
My waters are stilled. They no longer leap,
They no longer laugh. Caught in time's maelstrom,
They spiral down into the dark earth,
As though all of the hands in Hell were grasping for me.
I am wasted upon this stone, poured upon a hardened heart.
The shape I wear is not me. Like a ghost on Hallowe'en,
I walk among the costumed sleepers, dreaming clearly.
White sheets whip and billow in the wordless wind of change. The form they hide has no hands, no mouth,
Not even a tongue to cry with.
The sight of me is the first and only warning,
And then Doom! Doom! The great sky drum,
Raining down the pale curtain on our brief lives!
I think back to your innocent playfulness.
Like a dog who has caught an unknown scent,
You trailed me tirelessly, saved my wretched life.
You cursed me to a life of living!
I wanted death and you took it from me.
You are a cheater, but you cheated me honestly.
And now, my disgrace and despair, bubbling up from the darkened tarn.
The ice has passed away, but its unforgiving chill remains.
I am a lake trapped between the mountain's hands.
And the mountain, growing tired of supporting this world,
Shakes his fiery head! How beautiful, the sound of your voice, even though there is no hope in it for me.
Like the wind, my beauty has flown down the halls of time.
You no longer see me as the joyous spirit of nature.
I am now the wraith that reminds you all of how close is that fire, how dearly pursuing, that final ending.
Tired beyond belief, I cast my beliefs aside.
Tormented beyond sanity, I lose myself.
But the death, the fear, the pain and dogged persistence of time, you can see clearly in my face.
No longer my own, it becomes your face, your mirror, your death.
I am the exemplar of failure, the knight and saint of futile effort, your shield maiden and pallbearer.
I am your future, without love.
Dried up inside, heart crushed by the stony grave,
You are like a rock and I can no longer lift the weight.
I can only watch and wait for time,
The lover of miserable people, to finish the job.