Alone stands the conqueror before the throne
And the heavenly guard stand by
Force-field wings fold, head is cocked
As the falling king's gaze is met
"Destroyer of Worlds, God of the Quick
Bearer of the Sky-Dome, the Golden Mountain
Those are only names and names are taken away
If you'd fall upon your face, what shall that save?"
Mind is clear, like a razed table,
Yet something flows, a scent of memories
First memory quite timid, quite dim
A secret door hidden in my heart
Second memory, hazy like a distorted image
Of faces and the landscapes beyond
Third memory: integers and numbers and metrics
Fourth memory dark and perilous way.
And a voice seems to tell, calming and serious
Like a friend, safe yet so long lost
"The body a map, pain only a compass,
points of light a mission it says":
I remember the great book under the holy seal,
that the great-mothers bore to the new sky
I remember allies, wars, voyages
New deals, I remember
Myself only as I remember nightmares
Then collapse all realms, all of them
Ruler's names fade all to nothingness
Systems fail, on their lips great words die
And in the ruins the breath of winds fly
And even though I so live, all is scattered in time
Blown upon winds solar, of stars yet to die
Minds still learn the message of vastness,
Silence of speechless stars.
Was it love, hate, that once flowed through me,
Life, its fabric, in it a thread I was
Useless the moments and all that is in me?
So the mortal defies the face of darkness.