I close my eyes for a moment’s gaze
to stop myself from driving forward
around that starving point of faces
who smile backward, in both mind and eye

From the clasp that so tightly holds them,
which I must proclaim is rather deadly;
her eyes are colored, shed with rue,
and tainted by a hidden doorway—

“Lead them forward,” I hear it breathe
in trance-like whisper all too familiar,
while I hold his hand, cold and trembling;
“Why?” I ask, is the fear thus present?

Again the distant whisper breaks the air,
with blood in his veins pumping,
I feel each night closing inward,
as the voice reveals an enchanted light—

That which I had seen before,
three score and six years prior,
the love of many and pain of few,
breathe beneath the people’s wings

Returned again to this day present,
my great old friend expects his ways
to shift and change when
the voice lets go

and the doors open,
drawing for each one of us
an alternate road to
immortality.