In a grey haze I find myself Crawling upwards on cold rock shelves. Knees scratched and bleeding My mind a blur. On a path But I don't know to where. On my way I pass many folks Heading up, down, some as inert bulks Some come shambling in jerky streams Like sleepwalkers In a jittery dream. As I reach further up the winding stairs I sense gradual shifts in the air. It gets more cumbersome to breathe and climb And the fog thickens Over a shrouded mind. The passing shapes now Seem to notice me more As something alien, something deplored. As something dangerous, their faces tell I'm a vile creature, an image of hell. Countless shapes lift my body from the floor Drags me off in wonder As to what I have in store Will I soon be squandered? Like a match burnt out Like a twisted nail. Like bad cloth torn asunder Yanked away with force As thread was wrong. I was expelled from the dream Ushered down into oblivion. Cast into the bowels of the great beyond Into the unseen Slowly devoured by the void That dreadful endless sea.