I
he feels a shudder down the death knell and knows

fields she roamed for a while
they thirst
stained crimson
thrown down
by what once grew green beneath her feet
she lies there alone
last of an old world torn

with darkness gathering
deepening - drowning
shadows settle
silence covers
thief cast away
refuge exiled
here she stayed in a
spring bled dry and
this summer dead

nothing stirs the air any longer
as – by the grace of night
a spell is lifted
leaves to ash
soil, root, thorn
curse, hurt, cut, scar, gaping wound
sworn moon, sun, stars, silent sky
the enchantment of life ended

II
"it stands against a bleak horizon
a monument and crown
we built it high and strong
immortal stronghold
stone by stone was cast on
buried soil beneath, humiliated
pitiless sign of warning

we hailed death and our world's demise
the sound of the knell split the heavens, Eden, earth
bitter devastation and utter defeat
rejoicing in ourself
our final triumph
our refuge
that's where
we meet

swallow my friend in misery
I crumble and fall next to her
a touch
I awake
she is not there

through the fumes I rise above
darkened skies that we have conquered
dead air I breathe to flee
the scum that we have bred

I roam alone and feel the horrid
stale stench – thrust into swaying darkness

modern futile death we gave the wilderness
which it gave back to us
a foe made by our own hands
killed all but ourselves

behold a battlefield abandoned
a shame, ruined disgrace to all mankind

what there lies
is not anything worth dying for
but to turn away and run
I spit on you, dismal place"

III
" Wilderness insane
I encounter
its rotten soul reaches
beyond my heart's beating
and calls me
raging

and roots of dead trees
a shadow
without me and through me
within me
my enemy

and the mass of gray tells me nothing
nothing is worth
enduring so much loss
alone here
breath failing
when I shriek into nothing
it echoes
as I become nothing"

the wind had swallowed his cries
carried them over a plain
smashed and shattered
far and wide
a glance whence he had come
the tower
the walls
the smoke
but a shadow behind

turning ahead again
he lost his eyes in the distance
there he would be embraced
by leaf and twig of her
growing trees
"beneath a hidden star
my sunclad pale hope"

"down there, her realm lies
all thorn, all shut, all dead
I descend to a black brook
chocking in the endless desert waste land"

stumbling
he turned away from empty eyes
his share of her grief
sun clad in crimson
and lay down

from its home broken
his soul fled
by the brook
through desert
water and earth

and the sky opened
and shadows and mist
and his breathing lost
two seraphim stood
statues, like stone
with wings unfold
embracing none

" and the sun sickens
her singing echoes
shrieking
through broken gates
Eden deserted
God is no longer here"

(FS 2004-2007)