1. LIBRARY OF EMPYREUS

You smile with your eyes and that’s how I know
You haven't smiled in years
The curve of your mouth distracts from the absence
You’re far away from here
You live in four walls, you ride in your car
8 hours at a desk
You go from a box to another kind of box
To another kind of box

I’m fine. How are you?
What does it mean to be fine?
No slow to the grind
Time to join in the facade
But your soul is so ready
To trade in for a better life
On the other side

Longing for reprieve from a bad dream
Drift above the stench
The petty masquerade
No reason to emulate the kindness they fake
Pushing upstream, pass through the rank disease
Never with a moment of ease

Ignorant lot
Clumsy clatter fills their thoughts
Minds strain in the dark
All grey matter but no spark
Why waste your time?
Cogs so rusted caked with grime
The wheels will never turn
The people never learn
The quarantine’s begun
No other option but to run
A stone you have become
Your hatred is a cancer in the blood

Now the twine is cut
And swiftly falls the night
The lonely vagabond wanders towards the light
And here am I, the transcriber of your life

Now the book has been opened and I shall impart
And appraise the good of your heart

What has this tale to do now with me?
This recitation of misery that I read
Comfort needed, never heeded
Hideous culprit deformed in the mind
Toxin drips from his mouth to infect humankind
A shroud of shadows ‘round him

O, the villain
Whose is the face that I see on the page?
Depiction
Familiar beast grinning sly in his cage
You beckon
It is the smile in your eyes that betray
The monster has my eyes
I… the atrocity. I am the plague.

No, Oh God.
Let me look away
My hands are stained by the suffering they gave
What mercy is left for one so depraved?”

I cannot condemn an ignorant man
Nor can I admit him into Empyrean lands
Return whence you came
Reborn as a babe
Grow in size not in pride,
Nor in hate but in grace.


2. WATER TURNS THE WHEEL

Sleep, a fiction of peace
No rest in my mind, no solace in dreams
I am a captive of my own machination
I built the labyrinth but I can’t remember how

Run, no other choice but run
I know your face , Pursuer
I know what you want.
Hammer in your hands
Desolation in your stride,
You claim the world as your own
And leave no trespassers alive

And now I know
Reflections in the fragments show
The lifeless still can die
My mind is a ghostly cry

Why when the night falls
Do the walls rise around me to trap me in
The chimes remind me there is no time to waste
My mind is slipping
And off in the distance a soldier calls
I cannot reach him
Around the stranger wraps the maze
Drawing me near to his rest
The secrets in his final breath

Silence has finally awakened me
Drawn out all the venom of nightfall
The nightmare still chills me
Captivating, exasperating
Enter the water
Purge away the sickness from my soul
My hands are straining to reach
My eyes made streams from the horrors I’ve seen
And the battle so far from complete
But in this dream lies everything


3. VIRIDIAN PEARL

Hail traveler! Welcome to the games!
Is this your first visit to the universe?
Take a moment; drink it all in
Wonder of the stadium!
The combat will soon begin
Shall we wager who will win?
Glory awaits one victor
Why shouldn’t we cash in?
Spirits flowing free
Spectators roar like a crashing sea
This day has finally come and
We’ve all paid our admission fee
A majestic tournament
To memorialize
The extinction of the human tribe.
Glory to the noble genocide!

Witness the contestants. Observe how strong!
These human beasts had labored long in blood.
Vicious in war for millions of years or more.
Countless warriors have hunted,
Their destruction to ensure
Yet among the slain
Two prisoners remain.
Let a legendary duel
Between them be waged.

A challenger’s demise means
Capital for you and I.
So choose your man well
Beseech your gods and put your money down!

If I slandered their name
What would be gained?
Would it return my cherished from their graves?
So swallow my hate
This phantom in my veins
Dulls the shame as I slay to entertain
Just one more time then at last i’ll be allowed to die.

Every evening I drift into nothingness
Consciousness
Nightmare’s new dwelling place
I embrace it
Twilight ebbs away; I do not fear the fade

I recognize the face on the other side
Out of the billions of strangers.
Can you tell me, why are we here
Why must it be you?
I would pray for our souls
But for fear God is deaf to us too.
The viridian pearl will spin on
Long after we are all gone

So my friend enjoy the show
Don’t keep your eyes closed
This is how we pray;
These offerings we give for we know

That perhaps one day
We’ll join the condemned
Do not dwell on the good things that end.
For now, Rejoice!

A strike
(For now we are everlasting!)
Sands red with blood; there is no honorable way to die.
(For now we are the high kings of heaven!
Rejoice!)


4. BEHOLD THE NEW

Emptiness opens the door to fear
Throw the bolt behind it to keep me here
Apprehension invades the mind
Years of defenses, at once frantically unwind
The scarlet flush inside my skin
A mounting panic as high tide begins
Serpentine fingers coiling round the heart
More I struggle, more I tear apart
As the alarm shrieks
No one runs to aid the weak
Madness inauspicious
Just hide me away from your sight

I’ll abide by what you prescribe
Just medicate so meditation's not required
Lie. Believe you’re working on the side of light
The cure that you bring leaves me drying up inside

My flesh is heavy
A burden to carry
Visions in my mind
Frightening and unclear. Creature inside me
Assailing the walls of its cage
About to escape
So much pain

Alive but just what am I?
Old flesh falls and new essence grows
Strange new senses surpassing
Sounds and sights that I used to know
Paradises rise around me
Always there but never felt so close
And finally my mind and body
Can be in perfect peace
Newborn and free

As a child I would dream of
A voice calling me out of sleep
Now we meet, not a dream but alive
A friend from the outside
Finally arrived to welcome me home

How to silence the old epidemic of violence
The song was always playing in an unheard key
Now I feel it in the air
I see it in the light that glimmers here

Oh my dear humankind
May every night you sleep be haunted by the sweet,
Far away dream
Peel the stones off of your skin
Tender again
Slumbering souls invite this gentle wish

The vision may lie out of reach
But dwindling on the horizon
An approaching epoch of peace
I will never cease to sing
Won’t you please embrace the song?
Come with me.