I lay, torn and aghast, at the gates of the dwelling place of God My body is broken Every bone shattered against its rails Every vein spilled across its towers My blood flows in rivers with the grain If I could cry still, I would, but all tears are spent My mouth shudders the words, I screamed as I pounded on those unmoving doors My silent lament There is no greater hell than isolation And so as you were in life, you shall be in death Alone within, alone without In the eons, that echo twists and throbs and coalesces Beside the palest form quivering outside the dwelling place of God A crystal hand caresses his face, closing the eyes of his unseeing frown I felt that final kiss with lightning's crack The echo reaches through time and space in the black From that old room with the rope as my vertebrae snaps