Across the Styx

Part I

The Final Breath

Light reaching down through black waters above

Burning, sodden, choking in vain below

A new light reaching down to me above

Leaving it all behind me, the past below

Floating soft upon bliss and agony

Upon these Stygian waters flowing

Fulfilling the final ceremony

The last breath of life, the final showing

Oh Hades, take my hand down this river

Where to Elysium or Tartarus go

To the final Rest Home I come hither

Cold pervades, the body falls behind lo

I see around, the panic flees my chest

All laid bare before me, leading to rest

All that had been forgotten brought to life

Even as life fades from this tired vessel

Heat blooms on nonexistent flesh a rife

Breathe life once more into this the vessel

The light fades now from dying eyes, sight gone

The ethereal glow of the empty mind

The spark still remains feeble and soon gone

A cry of final fear echos through the mind

Final surge of clawing desperation

But these black waters, cloying treachery

Drag me down down, the great realization

Time is up, the great failing treachery

Potential flung far and the end to come

I pass, a pawn in the great zero sum

Part II

Stillness

The warmth is gone now, the cold is gone now

Sight has fled, light and dark long gone away

An empty field stretches ahead, gone now

Whispers no more, the mind has gone away

No more to taste the sweet nectar of life

The final veil stilling the animus

Parting the detritus of mortal strife

The loss felt no more unanimous

Secrets of Lethe to rid of sins past

Secrets gone, joy and sorrow, all washed clean

The Asphodel petals upon air cast

Those who drift seeking again the past gleam

Upon the meadows forgotten to wait

A light to Rest Home guide or trickster’s bait

A gleaming memory disturbs silence

Time unfulfilled, those held most close and dear

Great sorrow upon the soul does violence

Petals of the flower not for me dear

To seek the last strand most tenuously

The fleeting spark that guides the drive

To breathe of life once more strenuously

To return and once more and seek to strive

Time has yet to come, eternity gone

Stygian nightmare, heavenly spectre

The fear of the living come, no more gone

The flicker of light to guide this spectre

Rest Home, the sirens call reaches to me

But my time has not drawn nigh do you see

Part III

To Breathe Once More

Not for me is the sweet wine of Rest Home

Nor the Elysium plains or the clear springs

The ambrosial fount will wait I go home

Peace will come another day and bring spring

Time will call the appointed hour yes

Of a life well lived when all is satisfied

I will wait the day of the last call yes

But not this day as I fall sanctified

To rise like the damned from the black waters

Fading from my mind the final Rest Home

To brave once more the turbulent waters

To claw and drift through the world to roam

The final rattle, not quite so final

The shuttering breath to draw until the final

Bright light as the stars above pierce the night

Eyes open dry and burning, flesh prickles

Lungs sodden and the head far too light

Gasping the breath forgotten, sharp nettles

Meat on stark groaning bones shifts now restless

The howls of Cerberus, thoughts far too loud

For that which had been so still, now deathless

The final grasp recedes, a lifting shroud

The booming march of the hearts staccato

Rushing blood almost stilled in the chilled veins

Humble mind takes place of false bravado

Each day important no longer in vain

To breathe and savor what was once no more

Back to my wearied body life once more