Death Walks

Alone in darkness I walk, yet I am not afraid.
Nothing for company, save the stars - and the shade
of a silent follower. He keeps my company in the night,
always there, ever silent - hiding from the light
of the ever present moon.

Alone I return from my grim task - left the grave
side I was to watch. What, who was I to save
by standing there alone? In the night I cried in pain
for the loss of those so dear to me. That's when he first came
to my side - when I was so lost.

I feel his presence, always behind me, every step
closer and closer. I feel him come. Like the grayling leapt
from stream to shore, stranded in a foreign land.
With my silent companion, I am left to stand
alone on a distant, silent shore.

Mud weights me down, covering my boots. Leaving behind
a trail of tears, I move though my life. I find
a gentle hand dries my tears, bringing my pain to an end -
but no one is there, save my silent friend.
Always there, but never close.

What are you shadow? Who were you in the past?
A friend of mine perhaps, or a specter with a silent grasp
on a life you cannot release. Why must you follow me?
Why can't you leave me to my sorrow, to drown in a sea
of my own making - let me be!!

Wait - I know you, don't I? We share
the same grief. While I have lost all I have cared
for - you took them from me. I have lost
those I love - you have taken their lives and tossed
them to the stars beyond.

So Phantom Death, you follow the living who cry
from sorrow you caused. Do you pity those who die
from your soft touch? No, your sorrow is for those who stay
behind - who live in grief. Your pay
for your work is tears of pain.

Death , why must you follow the living? You
have no place here - no place in my new
suffering. What do you want with me? You cannot replace
them in my heart. I only have enough space
for those I truly loved in life, and death.

Strange, I find myself pitying you. You walk
alone through eternity; you pray silently - for what? You talk
with the stars, but they do not hear your request.
So you turn to the living for solace . . . you test
our faith, our sanity that way.

While you are Death, you seem to love life
and all its beauty. Neither you nor I care for strife
or heart break. We are more alike then we know.
We both grieve for the dead. We ignore the living - no,
that is no life at all.

You are a shade of life, I am alive. Let those
who live remain in this world - you can not pose
as the living. Death, my silent friend, do not weep
my tears of pain, you have your own loneliness to keep
in your heart.

Yes, you do have a heart, how else can you feel
sorrow, how else can you care for those who lives you steal.
Poor, sad Death - you don't have to be consumed
in this grief. A bond of understanding has bloomed
between two broken souls.

Death walk with me for a ways. Walk beside me, we can share
this road tonight. I know you sleep in the grave, but I cannot bare
to see your pain. So I walk through darkness unafraid,
no longer alone, no longer in pain - accompanied by a lonely shade.
Death walks with me tonight.