Wading gapers lash & mow And in flicking pitch They call from the bottom Restless arms Stretching out Blindly bat at the scent of the surface Where a nodding forest draws Sweet airs from the sky To weep down upon them Beneath the crust Skin like chalk Features eroded & cracked hulls breaking-up A sigh That flies straight like an arrow To bury itself beyond these halls of mould Reprieve Rise a bolt from the strong will Another clambers onto The Lazarus Cord A line like dried skin, pearl & taught Hangs through the barbs and lips of the shadow Pressed by wide Thirsty eyes Wet with failure and wild with devotion At its base a brawl of souls Scrambled structures, flapping and broken Fallen high From the cord Dashed apart on the shards of their fathers Alone upon that ivory line A figure climbs the rope From the rotten heap Back to life Out of death Watched by ancient, toothless and open mouths Bawling out their crimes to the shadow Elemental, hoarse and forgotten Beneath the crust Skin like chalk Features eroded and cracked hulls breaking-up A sigh... And the rope reclaims a soul To its weave of sinews Enervating, the dust on their dry fingers In a slow-formed intimated cascade Curling smokres step across and, embracing, Like hunting nerves they scavenge for reason On the Lazarus Cord And the rope reclaims a soul To its weave of sinews Blind husks cling to the cord Leveled, their gaze at the Roots and the damp soil, Lined soft with light gossamer Beheld from the catacomb By piercing black diamonds A glazed and gelid ether As waters over Waxen features Their eyes a glass In granite seizure But it's all that matters It's all that matters now On the Lazarus Cord