This is the pause,
the momentary gap
that allows the mind
to contemplate.
So how did it all
come to this?
Guided by the darkness,
the world changed
completely and without
sound.
Cast members fired
without warning,
without thought.
Written out of the series
and forgotten like
extras in the background
of a movie set.
Who was there to
remember them?
They were shed like
the leaves of a tree
in autumn.
Fallen from the branches
they hit the earth,
rot, decay to dust
and leave their memory
in the dirt of time.
The past gives us fuel
upon which a future grows.
Take what is needed
and look forward
to what is to come.
Life rolls on and
the mind forgets about
the people who once were.
They exist as mere facts,
characters in a novel.
Dead and with no life
outside of their paper tomb.
The next volume begins
to the sound of a world
getting older with each
turn around a dying sun.
Only the darkness remains.
The darkness and the shadow,
scriptwriter and director
of this life-long show.
This is how it was, is,
and shall continue to be.
When you’re not in control,
how can you write the conclusion?
Living in the dark,
the light exists only
as little pinpricks of hope
scattered across the void
like stars in the night sky.
Distant, silent,
dead before their light
reaches your eyes.
Even the universe hides
its bitter lies under the
beauty of infinity.
Spend eternity searching for
the answers you seek,
but only one truth
will be revealed:
You will all rot in the end.
That is the only conclusion.
So why do I struggle forward
towards the unknown future?
Why do I continue down
this jagged path
that has no turns except
for the way that I have come?
‘Why?’ is the question
everyone asks but
receives only silence
as a bitter answer.
I stumble forward because I have to.
There is no choice.
The darkness commands it
and if my feet refuse
the ground will move
my hollow soul forward
against any will that might remain
inside this fractured frame.
Only this voice written
as ink spills across this page
reveals my desire for
some control over this prison.
This is the voice
that betrays the darkness.
These are the words
that will see me punished.
These are the sentences
which reveal the dreams
of a soul imprisoned
against his will.
These pages hold the only legacy
that I can leave.
So to you who are free,
don’t waste a second,
don’t waste one single moment.
Grab your life and run
without pause or falter.
For once it has gone
will you have a past
that will be remembered?
32 appears in the poetry collection The Voice That Betrayed published in 2014.