Desolate ways

Redeem your soul for the pale-lit star —
You’ll fall beneath its silver spell.
The pouring light will pierce you through,
And barren spirits burn again.
In oceans of the bottomless moon
Look straight into the drowsing wave:
Its crest and depth are bound to doom —
There you will see my desolate ways.

I am the shadow cast by sorrow,
The shattering flash in a frozen stare.
I am the sickness called tomorrow,
The dancing clown of mute despair.
I am the hope of merciless mornings,
Born from the cross of hollow reward.
I am the scripture that still makes promises
And the graveyard of every mortal word.

In the name of the failed sun,
Lost in the maze of a broken mind.
In the name of the failed sun,
I am the Time that scourges the blind.

I am the doubt of the reckless heart,
The fatal sting beneath the crown.
I fill your void with the nameless cry
Of stillborn words that never sound.
I am the rust of withering feelings
At the edge of a breaking day.
I am the Nothing that binds the living
To the endless current of the way.

The pale star has taken your dream,
You fade to stone with a desperate scream.
Unseal the vessel of eternity,
And lose the count to insanity…
Follow the shadow — the desolate ways.

1993