"An Erstwhile End" by Brendan Dyament

An Erstwhile End

Brendan Dyament

The cold chain is wrapped around us

at the moment of our birth

Silent hands pull us through the years

Our thoughts concurrent with the rattling

of the links that bind us

to our end

We labor, we grow, we love

ever as the chain is pulled

One visage gives way to the next,

molded by the hands of the clock

Slowly awareness comes to us

We see the wall of darkness in the distance,

our long chain slipping past where

no light can enter

The fear of the vastness will give way

to the knowledge

that we may yet build along our path

monuments and monoliths

to the power of our hearts

And so we do, in all the ways we can

with hands that move against the years

to shape our legacy

And finally, when these deeds are done

we stride past the shadow

the ebbing light bidding us farewell

We leave behind what we have written

in ink and blood and stone

These words are keys to the great constraint of

our last conclusion

They will outlast us

Somewhere behind our fleeting forms

new hands grip the pages of our labor

and wonder what we knew.