I. Nephilim
Love, love is illusion. Life, life is confusion.
Cast out of a starless sky,
Crashing through the firestorm,
All I see is this divide—
I’m beating the drums of war.
Love, love is confusion. Life, life is illusion.
Cast out of a starless sky,
Crashing through the firestorm,
All I know is this divide—
I’m beating the drums of war, war.
Cast out of a starless sky,
Crashing through the firestorm,
There’s nothing left but this divide—
I’m beating the drums of war, war, war.
II. City at the End
Dead sentinels—
Dark windows watching us.
These spectral streets are fading fast.
No solid ground
To meet our marching feet—
But we heed the drumbeat ‘til the last.
Glimpses of futures,
Shifting too fast to grasp,
Slip through our searching hands today.
The odds are stacked against
This game of accidents,
But as long as one man stands, we play.
And chancing ever higher,
Stepping out on the wire,
We risk the prize for the display.
In the city at the end,
A million towers of decay,
Straining skyward, seek the morning,
But will never reach the day.
A broken marble statue
Watches the scene evolve,
Unmoved by vice or virtue—
Cannot damn nor absolve.
And time ever advancing,
Like the dust that will not settle,
You only see it in the sunbeams,
But it’s dancing through the shadows too.
III. On Cimmerian Shore
We are pinned butterflies,
And your wings they are green,
But your eyes haven’t seen me in years.
We explore passive voice,
Every turn preordained,
The illusion of choice stained by tears.
The horizon lies low,
In the palm of the sea,
And the sky falls away to the deep.
I am nailed to the wall—
Every nail has a number—
As if counting the points could bring sleep.
Runaway train of change—
There’s no slowing it down.
There is what we allow and refuse,
And there is what will be,
And what will be no more—
These are things we must never confuse.
Watch the sand falling through—
Look away if you must—
But the dwindling measure remains.
It’s a cruel hourglass,
Escalating suspense,
‘Til the moment you throw off the chains.
See the shadows draw in—
Soon the petals will close,
Like so many inaudible screams.
From the seasons elapsed,
Sands expended, amassed,
I am building a castle of dreams.
