Pit

Mors ubi dira fuit,
Vita salusque patent.

Sick unto death, I heard the sentence fall,
White lips moved from the judges’ wall,
Seven candles burned like angels first,
Then sank to spectres, flame and thirst,
Down, down, still down I went,
Into Hades, breath unspent.

Silence. Stillness. Night.
The universe went black.
No grave would take me back.

Pit below, blade above,
No mercy, no god, no love,
Down, still down, it comes for me,
Line by line through agony.

I woke on stone, in eternal night,
Hands found slime, but never light,
One more step and I was gone,
Over the circular pit alone,
A sullen plunge answered below,
Water, echoes, death moved slow.

Silence. Stillness. Night.
The universe went black.
No grave would take me back.

Pit below, blade above,
No mercy, no god, no love,
Down, still down, it comes for me,
Line by line through agony.
Through agony

Razor crescent, hissing air,
To the right, left, everywhere,
Rats with red eyes, famine-fed,
Cut the bands and spare the dead.

The walls grew red.
The iron breathed.
Death said the pit.
I showed my teeth.

Pit below, blade above,
No mercy, no god, no love,
Down, still down, it comes for me,
Line by line through agony.

One loud scream.
The walls rushed back.
An arm caught mine.
Then all went black.