Nothing that breathed disturbs this enclave* As the monolithic cosmic millstone Grinds ever onwards Crushing meaning beneath cold stone It is here that I lie At one with the darkness Where timelessness breeds tranquillity And the ravages of frailty thrash Against the walls Of a reality long ago Fractured and scattered And yet... so slowly It starts to slip away (Draining, sinking) My strength weakens With each shuddering breath With the fading of the mists And the dying howls Of the withering wilderness Wreathed in decay Solitude is torn away My cries pierce the silence like arrows As this refuge is rent asunder The fragile fabric collapses Realisation wracks the spirit And I stare into the glittering eyes Of yet more unbridled sufferance Rending me As this solace wanes, the wind grows colder This once-verdant landscape now stands Stooped and alien, stripped of spirit Nothing remains to soothe a lamenting soul What was once mine is no more Ripped open and naked, I bleed Beneath the wanton iron skies That pour misery onto a hapless thrall My nothingness exposed to all... (So little now still stands Scorched earth and desolation and legacy of shame For which I now pass judgement through the vessels Of a new and forlorn Epoch)