Each step taken in this life is but a new chapter in humanity's struggle to spite itself.

In an instant, a paradigm shift can usher chaos while simultaneously nurturing peace.

As cold steel tears through even colder flesh, a grim harbinger is made of one's humanity yielding to a nightmare from which few have emerged the same.

This nighmare is an unreal untruth, a tearful ode articulated through uncertain voices.

Hellish motions make tenuous an ostensibly strong bind, starving the soul and turning sanity into little more than a salient liability.

It is me and I am it.

I am it and it is me.

Born as one, burn as one.

Fail as one, fall as one.

Finality breeds a cruel future.

Do we know this time?

Do we cherish this feeling?

Do we love with a passion that needs no concealing?

Can we know ourselves?

Can we fight forever?

Can we keep ourselves bound by humanity's tether?

Will we leave with a smile?

Will we fade to black?

Will our spirits survive this most wretched attack?

Should this nightmare relent, let us share a great laugh.

Should our sins be forgotten, let us forge a new path.

If this world were gone tomorrow, was it our own life to live?

If this realm were stripped of purpose, how could we our souls forgive?

My soul is bound for Hell tonight.

For what, I cannot say.

Yet thanks to mirthful clarity,

My mind refutes decay.

I leave behind a loving wife, a vision of true grace.

Before my time, I pen this rhyme as tears beset my face.

When taking my last mortal breath, I hear a wistful cry.

Before I knew, my loving wife clung firmly to my thigh.

She begged our God for leniency, but lost her voice halfway.

Our gaze then met one final time, our souls in disarray.

With all the passion in her lungs, she pled for my reprieve.

Despite her cries, my flesh fell cold and thus I took my leave.

With tattered soul and tarnished mind, I curse each wretched day.

With a blade to her heart, my wife calmly intones “Help is on the way.”

They say a nightmare never ends till wistful clouds relent.
We say that darkness fades to light when shameless souls repent.

They say a life can be snuffed out as easy as a flame.
We say a sin bereft of verve has no right to a name.

They seek to drag the spirit down and scar the purest minds.
We seek to shatter their resolve and sever paltry binds.

They claim our spirits to be trash and curse our soul to dust.
We claim their threats hold little venom as ideals succumb to rust.

They linger by our headstones, their lips moistened with delight.
We linger at the Mouth of Hell as demons scratch and bite.

Who will endure this debacle in which we all play a role?
Has he savored a cruel victory or just quashed his former soul?

Hear me, won’t you?
Fear me, won’t you?
Lay me down to die, why don’t you?

Tear this flesh of mine apart,
Use my blood to make true art.
Feel these screams deplete my heart.

Hear me, won’t you?
Fear me, won’t you?
Shatter my last dreams, why don’t you?

See the chaos in my eyes.
Know the demon in disguise.
Face these fears we authorize.

I am empty.
I am cold.
With this pen, my fate is told.

Goodbye dear life.
Farewell sweet sin.
Our paths shall never cross again.

Should fate return me to this world, I may express content and glee.
For when our journeys intersect, it may be death in fear of me.