The Fountain

Oh god.

Death is a disease and we will find a cure.
Death is a stranger that we greet with many faces.
Death is pain.
Death is life.
Death is greeted with a 'Not today, thank you'.

We will not give him our ear.
We just need a little more time.
We just need a little more grace.
As the tree of life rockets into space
and the gates of the underworld open.

We will not go to him kicking and screaming.
We will not go to him in the manner befitting
some species of ape that has learned how to count.
We will not go quietly into his embrace.
We will go with a great wailing and gnashing of teeth.
We will not go with a sigh and a shrug of our palsied shoulders
as if to say 'Well, it's about time'.

We will not give him our tongue.
We just need to pray a little louder.
We just need to find the right words
To keep him at bay in this place.
As the tree of life rockets into space
and the gates of the underworld open.

Death is near, and we will run from him.
Death is at every door and behind every eye.
Death is you.
Death is I.
Death is assaulted and defeated and denied.

We will not give him our hand.
We just need a little more might.
We just need to understand.
We just need the sight of his face
as the tree of life rockets into space
and the gates of the underworld open.

It's time to leave.
I'll breach the walls of this place -
our bodies are as prisons -
and I will soar in the heavens
towards the dying star
my will my only weapon
and the ones I love so far
away.

I will not give him my love.
I just need to hold onto you.
I just need to come through the fire.
I just need to drink, and smoke, and swear.
And no doubt he'll catch me unaware
as the tree of life withers in space
and the gates of the underworld tremble.

Everything is a single point.
I cannot bear it a second longer.
Let it return.
Together we will live forever
but this void is intolerable
I will not ask you to weather
this place outside of time.

We will not give him us.
Together we will live forever.
Death is all.
Death is the end.
Death is the road to awe.