we are dust and shadow
Ethereal ghosts
Moving in life’s undertow
Within temporary hosts
Doomed to live for eternity
Yet to die and be reborn
Lost in our self pity
Tortured and forlornWe are forced to roam
Through the realms of man
Outcasts from our natural home
The Gods cursed our clan
Once Angel born and pure of heart
Now ancient and laid so low
We questioned the Gods and they tore us apart
Leaving just dust and shadow
She dances as the moonlight
Weaves silver through her hair
A princess in the realm of night
O would she this heart ensnare!
Her hair shimmers like dark water
Her eyes shine with an inner light
She is her father’s daughter
And her father rules the night
———-
When I close my eyes I see her srill
Her dreams broken and undone
The night holds her against her will
She longs to feel the sun
The shadows follow her everywhere
Protection that holds her tight
Forbidden to leave her fathers care
She is bound to the endless night
———
Oh how I loved her, how I cared!
Yet this love I did betray
Her need of darkness was not shared
I yearned for the light of day
I returned to the land of the living
Intending to return hastily
But Her father was unforgiving
And The night was lost to me
———
So I wasted under the blazing sun
Tormented by the shadows it threw
I took to searching every one
For a glimpse of a face that once I knew
But as I neared the shadows faded away
Leaving me lonely with my regrets
In anger I cursed the light of the day
In a place where the sun never sets
———
When I close my eyes I can see her dance
Feel her hand slip into mine
A waking dream of a forbidden romance
From another place or time
I long for the day when my beating heart stills
And the dark shadows come alive
We will dance together on moonlit hills
Where the sun will never rise
He reaches out and puts his arm on her shoulder
Pulls her close and into his space
She trembled as the darkness enfolds her
As she sees the look on his face
He kisses her hair and whispers his guarantees
“No one will love you as much as I could”
He puts his hands around her neck and started to squeeze
Somewhere an owl hooted deep in the wood
The moon and the stars conspired for romance
Heedless of those that hunt by their light
Young lovers caught up in the passions of loves dance
Unaware of the monsters that crawl in the nightHe laid her down gently in the heather
Kissed her lips in whispered goodbyes
Promised her that they would always be together
The moonlight reflected from her open eyes
He thought it was no more than he deserved
The love he offered was always the best
Such love, he mused, should be unreserved
Such unspoilt memories to take to her rest.
And the moon and the stars kept on shining
Uncaring of ill deeds done under their light
But it’s not natures way to be redefining
The role evil plays in the heart of the nightAnother town and in another bar
Another hopeful smile exchanged
Two hearts beating under another star
One mind remains deranged
And so the world keeps on turning
A desperate lovelorn dance
Lonely hearts keep on yearning
Playing a game of chance
And the moon and the stars oversee all
Illuminating all the sins of men
Bedevilled in the grip of another nightfall
The record starts playing…again and again..
The music slows, I’m so aware
This maybe the last dance we share
So let the music ever play
To keep away the coming day
For tomorrow your plane will leave
Leaving me here alone to grieveHow long after you have gone will you
no longer think of me
A day, a month, a year or two
Before I’m just a memory?You followed your head but not your heart
We made no promises right from the start
At least not in words for none were spoken
But when you leave my heart is broken
Some promises don’t need words to make
And these are the ones most difficult to breakAnd will the years be good to you?
May life treat you kind
Will another love be real to you?
I hope such love you’ll findWe are all but autumn leaves
Spinning in a cold winters day
Dancing in a manic breeze
Before slowly crumbling away
So what of love? It’s the winter snow
And when the sun rises, it melts, you go.
So many times I have called to you
How can I show you I care?
And how many times can my heart be broken
This love, I’m not sure I can bear
Reality tells me I’m wasting my time
Over and over again
Can’t you heal this ache that is mine
Killing me with this pain
Echoing voices that fill my head
Redemption comes at a cost
Hope is crushed as dreams are shed
Inside me all is lostIt seems to me that nothings real
This world just cannot be
A judgement made with no appeal
A cell door without a key
Locked inside my nightmare
A maze inside my head
Looking for somewhere, anywhere
Where I can feel instead
Numbed by life, by circumstance
Accusing thoughts I’ve never spoken
Paranoia does it’s happy dance
But I am left alone and broken
Though we searched high and low
In places that only monsters go
Through mountains where the eagles fly
And valleys where the dead still lie
Through the darkness of the ominous caves
Lined with bodies of broken slaves
And along the old kings castle walls
Where still the sound of wailing calls
Through all the hamlets in the land
Among the wary and the damned
From battlements to battleground
The warrior stone could not be foundFor many years the warrior stone
Had sat beneath the royal throne
It’s strange magic making sure
The border walls were held secure
It’s secrets passed from King to heir
But the second born was hidden there
In jealousy he stole the warrior stone
Hoping to steal his fathers throne
hiding the stone deep in the blackwoods fen
He was retracing his steps back but then
With the night came the harrowing fog
He stumbled and drowned in the Blackwood bogWith the loss of the stone the border walls fell
Exposing the realm to the forces from hell
The sun was clouded as swarms of locusts descended
Demons swarmed over the walls undefended
The king and his men where soon overcome
The prince and his family where ordered to run
Demons hunted and plundered, murdered and enslaved
Devouring the blood that they had long craved
Humanity fought bravely but were slowly diminished
Within a decade it seemed they were finishedThe Prince had spent the time searching and fighting
Behind his banner the last of his people uniting
Weary and tired, finally they stood
With the Hellborn behind them and faced the bogs of Blackwood
Certain death or just death, he thought with a curse
The choices we make, none better, all worse!
As darkness descended, along with the fog
He and his people entered the bog
In front his boy, barely twelve years old
But a proven fighter, clever and bold
Confidently choosing the path to set them on
But a moment later, he was goneThe prince ran forward as fast as he could
Only to see him stuck in the bubbling mud
He threw him a rope and called to his men
And braced himself to pull him out again
But the bog wasn’t easily defeated instead
It pulled the boy down until only his head
Could be seen above the mercurial land
Slowly it disappeared, just an arm, then a handThen the rope went slack and the prince fell to his knees
Begging his Gods to respond to his pleas
Then suddenly a strange light through the water burned
And the hand broke the surface as the boy was returned
Slowly his figure emerged from the mire
Dripping mud as he rose higher and higher
Stood on a pedestal that spun slowly round
And dropped by the prince onto the ground
The prince bent down and rubbed off the mud
And started to tremble there where he stood
With a voice full of emotion he did quietly intone
Gentlemen, we are looking at the warrior stoneHe knelt down before it and grasped it tight
Suddenly Blackwood exploded with light
A ball of fire formed high overhead
Then flattened out as it started to spread
Locusts burst into flame and then into dust
All over the country demons started to combust
As lightening fired down from the fire cloud overhead
Within minutes all the demons were dead
The border walls reversed their decomposition
As the displaced stones moved back into position
Across the realm people started to appear
Realising the truth they started to cheerTime moves on, Kingdoms change over years
History turns into legends and then disappears
Rewritten by rulers, twisted and awry
It becomes whatever you want it to be
In these fair island there still lies a stone
That still sits beneath a royal throne
An English throne with a Scottish heart
Let no man take the two apart
At some point in the past, a change to its name
It’s just words, the stone remains the same
For while every stone carries its own history
This one carries our destiny
In this place where blood was spilled
A place where many men were killed
Each fighting for a dishonourable cause
Where some distant lord will take applause
And count his coin with sweating hands
The price of death in foreign lands
Paid by the blood of fighting men
Who never returned to home again
Their bones restless in unfamiliar ground
Thrown together in a burial mound
No mourners there to vent their grief
Grass grows on the soil they lie beneathBut still there are those that mourn
In the places they were born
Where streets of smoke deny the day
And candles burn to light the way
Where some still weep and some still wait
Unable to comprehend their fate
Time sheds hope like a tree sheds leaves
Some live now only in their memories
As the world moves on they are left behind
Still searching for a love they cannot find
No tombstones stand, no flowers or wreath
Grass grows on the soil they lie beneath
He sits by her bedside, holding her hands
Trying to comply to his hearts demands
A past set in stone, but a present uncertain
A future once planned now veiled by fates curtain
A loss of attention, a car twisted and bent
And a darkness where voice’s first came and then wentThe terror he felt in that hospital bed
Not knowing what happened and filled with deep dread
Then told the full horror, his love fighting for life
His whole world balanced on the edge of a knife
So now he sits waiting, her hands in his own
From the seeds of distraction great chaos is grownHe bows his head and prays she can recover
He cannot imagine a life spent without each other
Behind him a shadow moved, a silhouette against the wall
The world seemed to pause, awaiting a scythe to fall
But the reaper chose to walk away, her time was not yet run
The book was not yet written, but a new chapter now begun
Why does the winter sunshine
Feel so cold against his skin
Icicles crawling down his spine
To freeze the heart within
Why does the blackbird sing
When all around it dull and grey
He finds no joy in anything
Least of all another day
Why does his broken heart
Plead for another chance
To beg her for another start
To rekindle a lost romance
Why does his head deny
His hearts insistent demands
You cannot build on a lie
A love on shifting sands
Better to turn and walk away
Better to not ask why
Some feelings words cannot convey
So turn and say goodbye
His eyes that once were warm with laughter
Now bitter and full of hate
Unable to process what comes after
To wrestle with his fate
His life now an endless hurricane
Of denial and despair
Consumed by his guilt and pain
He turns around and she’s there…
He reaches out to hold her
Calling out her name
A sudden clash of thunder
A flash of lightening came
And in that sudden illumination
Her face a grinning skull
His hopes final annihilation
Succumbing to deaths pull
She reached her arms around him
Pulled him to her breast
Her arm but a skeletal limb
Thrust inside his chest
She wrapped her fingers around his heart
Tore it through his skin
His horror peaked then fell apart
As she sucked his soul within
So beware one and all of you
For that girl who walks the storm
She is the evil that lies with you
Death in skeletal form
If the thunder you can hear
And the lightening blinds your eyes
Run from the things you most fear
For death lies in disguise…