I. Vultures

Walked ten thousand miles today,
Just to get far away from here,
My blind faith is leading me astray,
And I’m too heartless to ever fear.
Sunlight outlines all of my flaws,
Exposing them to the outside world,
I never claimed that I knew it all,
But a journey must amount to more.
My heart rate quickens just to slow,
Blood trickles in my veins like molasses,
There is no rest stop on this road,
This is where all life comes to pass.
Cancerous rays melt off the old skin,
To match a soul already long dead,
Searching for water with a notion,
This is the beginning, not the end.
Slowly I begin to digress,
The horizon has disappeared,
I gasp for one last breath,
And the picture is clear.
Hallucinations of the dead prying,
As they beg me for their escape,
Screaming intertwined with crying,
A haunting sound that won’t go away.
I discern a pack of dark eyes gazing,
Even in my presently unconscious state,
The vultures circle patiently waiting,
For the smell of death on their plate.
They scatter to the sound of thunder,
As the desert witnesses its first rain,
Lightning tears the skies asunder,
And my body no longer feels the pain.

II. Feeling

A slow, cold chill runs over my neck,
A kaleidoscope of colors in my eyes,
I feel my lungs begging for breath,
As a hand reaches down from the sky.
Lying paralyzed in the fetal position,
I stretch my left arm straight north,
Begging a saviors’ hand for permission,
Looking to be pulled to another world.
The birds of prey reemerge to feast,
I lay there unable to defend myself,
I am quite vulnerable to say the least,
They descend to attack and then dispel.
Everything goes black and totally silent,
With one swoop the hand kills them all,
In an act of the most immense violence,
Even cartoons wouldn’t fathom to draw.
A stream of ice water lines the sand,
And I somehow have the power to sip,
I make a cup with both of my hands,
Shaking as they reach my lower lip.
My body throbs again from the heat,
Blisters form in places I’ve never seen,
The sun cooks me like well done meat,
Burns and torture to the third degree.
What was once a glimpse of hope,
Seems to have left me here to die,
Finally reached the end of the road,
But I’m not ready to say goodbye.
I pound my fist and curse the heavens,
Which is how I got here in the first place.
The sun disappears just past eleven,
And a dark shadow covers my face.
A knot in my throat falls to the floor,
The feel of emptiness is overwhelming,
I’m too tongue-tied to say a word,
But I still mutter a “help me.”

III. Selling My Soul

A tall dark man in black boots,
Leans down to kick me in the ribs,
“Where am I, who the fuck are you?
I have nothing else left to give.”
“I came here to escape my debts,
And start this whole ordeal anew,
I already told you I have nothing left,
So now who the fuck are you?”
The sky is on fire as embers fall,
A sun on the left, moon on the right,
“That’s perfect since I have it all,
All I ask is you to follow me tonight.”
Smoke and hunger are all I can taste,
I reach for help, too weak to stand,
He throws a lit cigarette in my face,
Before lending me a cold, dark hand.
“Remember the thing that’s dead?
That you claim to have no use for?”
I think about it and shake my head,
“All I need from you is your soul.”
He holds out the palm of his hand,
And I hesitantly shake to agree,
The dead skin falls into the sand,
As all of my scars leave my body.
I do not hunger or thirst anymore,
My mind has stopped haunting me,
Should have considered this before,
If he could take away my misery.
“That didn’t hurt now did it son?”
As he chuckled under his breath,
“I’m not out here to hurt anyone,
Oh yeah son, you can call me Death.”

IV. The Revelation

I held onto his hand as we roamed,
All the lights in the sky disappeared,
Apparitions of hell feel like home,
Does my journey ultimately lead to here?
He lights another cigarette as we enter,
A cave or a portal I’m not sure which,
My eyes drifting away from center,
As they adjust to a pitch black silence.
No children are crying here, not a peep,
The man whispers in his raspy voice,
“This is the truth that you all seek,
But very few of you make this choice.”
I attempted to rationalize his words,
He knows I am completely confused,
“You see son, human reality is poor,
You can’t win the battles you choose.”
I understood that and nodded a yes,
Finally some logic in a fucked up day,
“Don’t you think that I know best?
You came to me to fix your mistakes.”
“From lust to gluttony, greed to despair,
All the way to wrath, envy and pride,
Manmade sins, and God doesn’t care,
He’s just as guilty as you, it’s all a lie.”
It all made such perfect sense now,
The questions don’t have an answer,
Loving and trusting and learning how,
Has been the cause of the cancer.
“Never believe what you’ve been told,
Just let me show you an example.”
I followed him in completely sold,
Unless this is the proverbial apple.