The Mirror
by Jareth Valentine

Deep within the ancient mists,
far underneath the stones,
buried an eternity
beneath forgotten bones
There lies a hidden treasure,
Sealed inside a chest of gold
that deep within contains
the greatest story ever told.

This treasure is a mirror,
made of silver, framed in glass
created long ago by mages
of the highest class
And should you hold it in your hand
and gaze into its face,
you will be taken from yourself,
away through time and space.

The mirror shows another world.
One like you've never seen,
A city paved with roads of gold,
and rooftops emerald green.
And people, living happily,
and waving as they pass,
All of this, reflected in
the mirror's perfect glass.

But as you watch, this perfect world
falls deep into despair
leaving nothing but the dead
and wreckage everywhere.
Where there once was perfect beauty,
flawless paradise,
in an eyeblink, decades pass,
And darkness comes to rise.

The seeds of evil, chaos, greed,
and judgement germinate,
And now instead of endless love
there's nothing left but hate.
In the span of only seconds,
in the space of just one breath,
the city falls to ashes,
and its makers meet their death.

And now the magic passes
And the mystic vision fades.
The mirror now shows nothing.
No more pictures, no more shades.
You realize what it showed you,
and it shocks your senses numb:
The world you saw was this one,
in a future still to come.