(Instrumental)

The murmur of war upon the lips of fiends

Clandestine plots grown from subtle seeds

Blossomed into amorphophallusesque ignominy

Too late to turn back from its lethal reach

The tick-tock of the doomsday clock

Creeping ever closer to the final stop

Harbingers of death vaunt in utter delight

As mass fear and panic begin to spread worldwide

The incredulous urge us, “Come to the light!”

And as the darkest days roll out overhead

We mourn in silence upon our tragic end

This is not the final countdown we expected to face

Empires rise and Empires fool

All beneath in droves and even those who rule

Either readily or once consumed by greed

Self deceit appeals more than reality

With heavy heart and enervated sigh

We succumb to disquietude before the eternal night

Even the incessant Rapturephiles quieten down

In a reflective moment before certain death

We curse the antiquated past we were unable to shed

A flat finale for this series of unfortunate events

At the end of days as the fires rained down

And decimated ruins were left to smoulder

We watched it all burn, crashing down around us

Amidst the choking smoke and sulphurous odour

And I distinctly remember the last words, you asked:

“How did your temperament become so much colder?”

And my answer to you? To turn my back and walk away

From the apocalypse over my shoulder...

The clingers on steadily drop like flies

As we near the fiery, fissured finish line

A choir of whistling missiles bid us adieu

A thickening haze suffocates the world

Still we try to place blame whilst our brethren burn

This was not how we envisioned our own demise

Yet the thunder rumbles on without respite

Catastrophic repercussions erupt across fault lines

All bridges both figurative and literal burned

As time runs out and our fractured planet is hurled

Like a vexatious pest swatted from the universe

There is reasonable doubt our lesson was ever truly learnt...

Do you remember the time

When you and I joined forces on that night?

The words we cast tearing through the past

To find a way to win the fight

And the way our tales entwined

Refined the prowess of our tongues

Finding a voice, our rallying call

Let no fret remain unsung

And with that the deed was done

The war of the words begun

Changing the game with inventive ways to quell our foes

Finding the silver lining ‘neath our broken psyches stranglehold

The malignant assailed, sniping our opposition from on high

A light forged from their darkness gleams in your Autumnal eyes

Entrenched in this sardonic romance

Two thorny hearts as sharp as glass

There was a time when you and I

Lay beneath the dreary rain misted skies

Replete with words which cut so deep

Into the fools that had passed us by

Those old foes who chose to oppose our prose

Finally faded from our minds

Obscured beneath the shadows

Now but a mere sneer as we roll our eyes

All their vicious work undone

The tide of the battle turned

Taking our aim we fire into the rotten core of those

Immovable forces which had kept us so indisposed

Unloading our traumas, shooting down our enemies one by one

Whose burns will never heal from the warfare of our tongues

Fading away, no longer tearing down our foes

Losing the cohesion which had kept our two halves a whole

Infused with intrusions from across the enemy line

That was the way we finally let the laughter die

And so ends this sardonic romance

Nothing so glib could truly last...

Bemused and waylaid

On a precarious cliff

We walk a fine line

Above the gaping abyss

Tensed, clenched fists grasp

For a mere sign of hope

Finding nothing but razor-sharp winds

As we’re cast to the jagged rocks below

Never before in our lives

Were the consequences so high

FIGHTING

For a future

CLAWING

To survive

Tethered to these ancient ties

Whilst our streets are streaked with blood

Striving to leave behind

This insidious past where it belongs...

Bruised and flayed

Shattered through and through

Thrashed and maimed

Yet relentless in our pursuit

With moonlight as the only guide

We wander side by side

The silence growing deafening

I dare not catch your eye

The bluish hues surround us

Casting shadows on our shame

To mask our true expressions…

Our journey has led us this far

Into the murky dark unknown

Casting out the doubts, we hide

Together, never more alone

Despite our best intentions

Every effort remains in vain

All the trampled, jagged pieces

Can never fit back together again

Time rolls ever on regardless of

The shards left in our open wounds

Winding on through all the noise

And the silent ones gone far too soon

Memories left, fading away

A cruel mockery this mortal game

So claim a draw whilst it’s there to breathe

Then bury the regrets with the rest of me

But until that day dawns it’s final rays

We will close that tome on an empty page

With moonlight as the only guide

We wander side by side

The silence growing deafening

I dare not catch your eye

The bluish hues surround us

Casting shadows on our shame

To mask our true expressions:

Empty, shallow, grave

We continue upon this path

The far less travelled road

Passing by the warning signs, still blind

To the destination unknown

In spite of our best efforts

The outcome remains the same

All the fractured, jagged pieces

Left in the wake of our mistakes...

So little left, traded away

For a handful of scars, ancient runes

Yet we still convince ourselves in the dead of the night

All the lies that we wish would come true

The brooding moonlight’s soothing light

A spotlight on the scene

Of the long dark night of the soulless

Succumbing to the need

The prose tinted glasses shattered

Revealing the endgame

Expressionless we walk away

Empty, shallow, grave

Every dead end diverted

Still the sequence remains unbreached

Passing by our past mistakes and ties

All our vanquished hopes and dreams…

Despite our best intentions

Every effort remains in vain

All the trampled, jagged pieces

Can never fit back together again

In spite of our best efforts

The outcome remains the same

All the fractured, jagged pieces

Left in the wake of our mistakes...

Secret sects are formed by the power craving kind

Fleeing from their failings, finding comfort in denial

This benighted growing swarm a cult of the blind leading the blind

Flocking into further fantasy converting fools into their tribe…

Bow to the King, kiss the ring

Bathe in a deeper meaning

And thus become a God, the knowledge sought

Was always yours for the taking

You behold the truth, that so few knew

Watch the layers peeling

Follow and you will thrive, become the hive

A faithful soldier in the making...

Throne to the wolves

The howls of umbrageous obedience

Now bowing to a different master

Doused in a fresh coat of ignorance

Unsustainable

These tall tales, mere whispers on the wind

Catching plausibility once in a while

You start to see the mounting gaps in between

You found out how the product is made

Assessed the man behind the curtain

And now, betrayed, with a reddened face

You’re set free still you remain unchanged

To save face with those who warned you away

Unable to admit that you were deceived

Now bound between a rock and a hard place

You double down and bite the hand that feeds...

...YOU!

Whilst each “revelation” turns to ash

The congregation still bow to pray

Hoping it wasn’t all completely for nought

That the trust was not misplaced

Yet even with the torch extinguished

The facts seem unbearable to face

The swollen sting of being swindled

That plummeting fall from grace!

Each time logic thwarts them and belittles their assertions

This quicksand cult mentality provides perpetual motion

The plague of paranoia spreads with no sign of decline

Rearing minacious content within conspiring minds...

It is never far away

That stalking, ever creeping dread

Embodied by the venomous

Cretinous shadow which lies in wait...

Peer into my eyes and ponder

What goes on inside my mind

How the cogs whir counterclockwise

And lines are crossed, borders intertwined

Where truth meets with pure malice

My warped reality gestates

Forgoing fact for fallacy

The difference soon dissipates

The rumour mill keeps churning

Rotting from inside

Listening intently

For the bavardage it seeks

They’ll never learn

Or see through the disguise

Lapping up all falsities

The truth despoiler speaks

It feeds upon attention

That fiendish force of malevolence

Engorging itself on tension

It is he who tugs upon the thread...

Hear me now willing fodder

As I lay this long, plotted path of lies

A trail that winds deep into the trees

With the forest lost to those inside

Wherein truth becomes obsolete

My deceit is free to manifest

Befouling all fact with fallacy

For those ensnared within to ingest

Don’t… look… into… its eyes

Don’t… believe… the fables… the lies

Watch... out… for the web… it weaves

Choke it... deny it… the putrid air… it breathes...

Pt. I: Staring Into The Void

Staring into the void

This impenetrable fortress

Of solitude forged

With defences rarely breached

Buried by time and dust

The vault long since sealed

Sailing blindly into the storm

Rudderless, dashed into the depths

Of the oceans endless gaping maw

Each gasping, hurried breath may be

The last grasp of a life quickly slipping

Further out of reach...

Amidst the murky cold starkness

All of time and space stand still

There is a peace in this nothingness

Until…

The ever quaking ache of waking up

To the breaking dawns pervasive rays

And so begins another weary day

Where trepidation pulls tightly upon the reigns

The haggard, weathered face is breaking up

Every frown a jagged crown of thorns on display

And sobered by the cold light of the morning haze

The creeping apprehension overtakes

All grandiloquence now dulled

As the swirling madness grows

Uncrowned and dethroned

Plummeting further into the vast unknown

A sunken vessel wreck

Found its final place of rest

Stranded and alone

This ransacked treasure trove

Deeper, deeper, deeper down…

Pt. II: The View From Here

Deep, silent, complete

Unlocked and finally free

Rid of self, all emotions healed

Until I surface, again, then breathe

Upon the highest point

Overlooking the vast majestic scene

Surveying the view from here

Such endless beauty

Untamed nature at its primal peak

Transfixed by the endless zaffre seas

The sudden rush of endorphins

A wave of madness forming

To drown out every memory remaining

Blinded in a moment of pure rage

An unthinking, reactionary state

The panic itching to escape...

Pt. III: The Great Unravelling Entropy

Uncaring, the world goes on

Then, now and forever

The page must always turn

Each new story builds intrigue

Text becomes faded and illegible

The notes in the margins smeared

Flicking through nearing the end

Reaching empty chapters

The culmination still unpenned

Each blank, unwritten verse may be

The last glance at a future quickly slipping

Forever out of reach...

The lone voice in the darkness

A cold, phlegmatic speech

Warned the struggle would prove fruitless

The internal ennui…

Succumbing to the truth our time is nearly up

The refulgence in the sky, an undeniable blaze

Trembling below we shuffle on in our malaise

No longer blind to our inevitable fiery fate

This bedraggled flesh prison is seizing up

Counting down the slipping seconds of every day

Humbled by the final morningrise we face

The end of our tale together, rewind and erase...

All magnificence now dulled

As the universe slowly unfolds

Unwound and outgrown

Plummeting further into the vast unknown

This sunken, broken husk

Will return to scattered stardust

A mere speck in the spectrum

Insignificant all we’ve loved and loathed

Deeper, bleaker, weaker now…

The breaking point

A hot white flash sets the scene

For the great unravelling entropy

The end of beauty

As it all begins to fade to grey

Mourning those long gone zaffre seas...