Life is a canvas laid bare for all to see Man is a mirror imprinted with lock and key Dichotomous gates lead to dormant ways Where every path was split in half We wander 'til we fade Time confounds and mystifies Awareness cuts like a blade The duplicitous curse of the gifts we share Soon lost on wasted days Let senses draw blood Drown in their flood A maelstrom of sweat and cold regret Life's paint seeps from our veins Through the portals that we left Our shades will follow through Embrace the struggle Learn to grow with your pain Hope lies in the solace of a dying dream Beasts trapped in a corner fight fiercest of all Does the light not shine the brightest in the depth of night? Once our souls moved softly And tiptoed through the world The Atlas weight a gentle ache But this could not be us A slave to wretched nature A rag doll to our hearts To relish burden like a fool while shadows tear at our mind We have shaped our sorrow and became the forge Infernos that consumed us once have wrought a tempered flame But bitterness does suffocate and stone breaks all the same Our sculptor's soul, though marble-made Eclipsed by the shadow of the heart Beasts trapped in a corner fight the fiercest of all Does the light not shine the brightest in the depth of night?