A devil’s wife will drain me dry   /   But not for life, we say goodbye

Another siren sings to me   /   I jump into the frozen sea

A working man goes out of town   /   But I’m not here to tear him down

Pleasure’s just a mask for pain   /   My body’s come to kill my brain

Regret and shame, the waking life   /   Alone I feel the twist, the knife

So every night back to the well   /   To fill my hole with hell

 

A million miles, a thousand years   /   From my last veil of silver tears

The arrow’s pierced the milky skin   /   The poison leaches quickly in

Heartbeat is a dying crawl   /   The writing on the castle wall

Lead me not into the fire   /   In this chill must I expire

The quiet lets the memory run   /   I dream of staring down a gun

The tolling of my funeral bell   /   I fill my hole with hell

 

Reality begets the void begets the call of steel

Deny the pain, and now the grave is all the hands can feel

 

Gray the home and blank the place   /   Ennui or hope and grace

Save the world in distant lands   /   Or stay until your blood is sand

I’ve escaped regret and grief   /   I have love, I have belief

So kiss your filthy world goodbye   /   By my side you have to die

Glory was a lie they sold   /   Sleep in bleak eternal cold

My Heaven’s shut, to Earth I fell   /   To fill my hole with hell

 

(Photo by Ben Salter, Creative Commons license)

• Poetry and Prose