THRONE OF DUST

The old king sat on his throne,
content with himself and his kingdom...
All was well – there were no more wars,
no more famine, no more suffering...
And no one left to fight to keep his people safe...
Even age was no longer a factor for him...

Many years ago,
he had made a deal with the dark gods...
A secret wish to be immortal,
to live forever...as king...
Never in his wildest dreams
did he believe that his wish
would be granted...
And now it was...
now he would live forever...

Ten thousand years later,
he looked out over his kingdom,
satisfied and content...
He saw the faces of his subjects,
his family, his loyal servants...
finally at peace...
But what he didn't know
was that what he saw...was nothing...
It had never occurred to him
that the dark gods had wanted something from him...
In exchange for invoking their power,
something was taken from him...
Oh yes...he would live forever...
but he would never see
or hear anything or anyone ever again...

In all of those thousands of centuries,
time had reduced his once proud kingdom,
filled with hard-working people,
vast farmlands, and beautiful rivers and valleys,
into nothing but a mountains of dust and rubble...

The rotted remains of his castle stood twisted
and gaunt like an iron skeleton...
Sunlight spilled in through the windows,
the glass shattered long ago...
There was vegetation growing wild,
vines and thorns creeping across the floor...
The wind swept through the halls with a loud howling...

And the old king remained seated on his throne,
receiving adulation and applause that wasn't there...
Yet, he was unaware of the sad reality...
The vines and thorns had grown up and around him...
imprisoning him forever in a shell of green and brown...
His immortality had gained him nothing...
but an empty kingdom, and a throne of dust...