Then sleep sacred sight of my better self,
Sleep deep and be in peace forevermore.
For I leave you on this wooden shelf,
To walk the dusk of flinty shadow's shore.
On th' lips of day my desperate lust does glide,
My eager heart bleeds quick for some remorse;
I can't feel the lonely depths that in me hide;
I can't feel my pain, nor the hell before.
Th' Apocathary of life grants my wait,
Yet th' poison I drink is that which I maintain.
What shade could forage what light could n't abate?
What glow could o'ertake my deep refrain?
Evil, evil, art thou my truest good?
Evil, art thou the true friend of the meek?
Do you hand-in-hand stand where life once stood?
Do you walk the fortress I once did seek?
The sands of time are crusted in my eyes,
And th' sores of morrow do rush on me late,
But with new sorrow I release new sighs;
With long shadows the silence I frustrate.
Transfer my guilt upon the sinless bulls,
Spill me out like a mist in th' morning light;
Place me in favor of your pleasure full,
Fork my skinless heart to plow my plight.
Th' shadows seem metallic under my skin,
They harden like dry wire in the crispy sun.
My will does sink into the darkness within—
To peal off the light like skin quickly undone.
The empty mirror does hide a villain.
I see a monster sick and green for love;
A cruel pain dives its crook'd fingers within;
I see him whom my hate has always loved.
Sleep pale man, in th' crux of the waning moon,
Follow jubilee into nightly evolve;
Fall into the end of the shrouded noon
And sleep, for when the light comes you'll dissolve.
Where are you pale Death when I need you most?
Where is the Life that of this body hosts?
