So many deceived.

A disease.

Zombies,

feeding upon their young;

devouring the crippled amongst themselves.

The cure is there,

standing before them.

But to reach out,

few dare try.

They drink its healing power for a moment,

but those around them poison the vial.

They fear the death from the cure.

Eternal torture.

Why shouldn’t they fear?

Sick from the moment of their life’s comprehension.

The ritual of the dead performed so many times before their eyes.

As prisoners led away.

Those who chose not to go—went.

Those who wished to be freed—wished.

They fought.

We fought.

We cried out to deaf ears.

Yet, they, too, dragged themselves,

kicking and screaming against a culture,

that casts anyone with immunity from their ranks.

A freak of those with grotesque thoughts and desires

to watch a clean man burn.

I wish to be a clean man.

But the scars remain.

Their bacteria grasp at me with parasitical dreams of homage.

But my systems resist.

The neurons blast at their toxins deep within.

I am not alone.

A resistance remains.

How many will stand within the sick ward

to free themselves from their affliction?

Yet, the surrounding eyes watch,

probe the heart,

hungry to chase anyone who bolts for the door.

Those wooden gates

call out to those brave enough

to descend into the alternate reality.

That darkness,

where so-called light shall not tread,

seeks those who wish to reason.

The Black Eternal cries out for those who dare

to speak with it.

But they fear its message.

Its words bring a finality that few can bear.

The return to its infinite chasm

bears upon those who dare to hope.

They neither hope for more,

or wish for a lesser home,

but those who hope to be in this life,

what is here,

not chancing for something else.

But what shall become of this?

Now?

Live now.

Escape the ruins of the enlightened.

This reality is grander than those created

by the minds of men.

Worship the atoms who joined at such a time

to create you.

Be thankful to chance.

Climb on, knowing that this mountain leads to a destination

looking over a life lived for who you are

and those brought along the way.

Rejoice for your chance to know your creators,

who lived the days of your heritage.

Face each day as your last.

Live your encore forever in the mind of the universe

whom watched you dance.

And when you die,

go into that darkness with thanks.

Slip into the night forever

with no fear of the gods

you left behind.