ever burning flame
searing rays of light
eastern sky afire
I turn and turn and turn
only the sun tells me where I stand
casting my shadow hither and thither

in this land of no mountains
in this bleak and empty space
silence
and the dry, raspy wind of an old, dying world

cold iron
the smell of blood
proof against magic
and the spells of elves
hopefully a ward against gremlins
and whatever ancient power
guards this alien landscape
hostile against my kind

blood, red sand
spilled from the years of sacrifices to the God of War
and the tang of iron, of steel
imagine that these mysterious rivulets
carved by flowing
water into wine
wine into blood

cold wind, aching bones
still the sun burns relentlessly
my heart still blazes
but I know the warmth seeps out by quantum grains of sand
I leak time upon the ground
each step, marching towards oblivion

millions of miles from home
I could wander around this world a million times
and be no closer

knowing the moment you begin
is the moment you begin to die

the end, we already know what it’s going to be like
to die, still and forgotten
last messages fluttering into the empty void
acknowledge, never received, signal lost
when the heart has grown cold
the fires at last quenched
in the end, we are all alone