I walk a shaded path
Through an overgrown wood
In search of the sunlit
Clearing that we once shared

Vines reach across the forest floor
Grasping for one another
When they are alone they may be free
But they are stronger entwined

I follow a faint trail of crumbs
Back to that once familiar place
Where we felt the warmth of the sun
It’s not the same without you
This sunlight is pallid and gray
I am adrift in cold light

I turn back to the forest
Resist the temptation to surrender to despair
Endure the anguish of this quest
Driven forth by the hope
That I may reach somewhere new
And I will find you waiting for me

Our last stand, in a frail spire

The churning sea swirls below,
swallowing all that we’ve made.
Our lungs choke on the ashes
of the fields that we watched burn.
Our time has come,
now we answer for our crimes.

We’ve sown barren land
with tainted, meager seed.
Any grain we may reap
shall be bitter indeed.
Barons hoard our future
in arks built by our hands,
While the boots we once licked
push us down into the sand.

When the rising tide lifts their boats
You and I will be left to drown with the rats.

A serene lake in an alpine cirque,
Distant trees hum in the wind,
They swell and wane like crashing waves.
Overhead, the canopy roars.

A brief moment of power,
the wind retreats, its voice fades.
Now a distant whisper,
soon the words will be forgotten.

Walls of granite lit ablaze by the departed light,
A fading memory to sustain us through the dark.

A twilight chorus,
a prayer for the distant dawn.