The Ash and the Ember

The lines we swallow

A chance to follow

The end, round the bend

Now I see tomorrow

In pools we wallow

Our own sorrow

And what we all know

Is dead, now we're left

In these quiet hollows

And here upon the highest shelf

A painting for you and no one else

An empty bottle of a prison cell

Beneath the oils we've canvassed hell

She said, where've you been

I've been waiting here, with him

And gestured a finger

At Lucifer

Who looked at her and grinned

Somewhere else, where lives might end

And with them the lies

That kept us breathing

Kept hearts beating

Against these brittle cages

Where Heaven dressed so strangely

We'd never welcome her in

And the nights I called home

Were the nights I lost hope

And the dead held their heads

And said don't we all know

But when my voice broke

The tiny machine froze

Aligning with the devil

He said, don't forget

Where you are when you go home

Here behind a wall of glass

A thousand tapes and photographs

Line the walls all dressed in black

To ask

Is it better to be the first to show

Or the last to go

Is it better to hold on to hope

Or to keep your feet planted firmly at home

She said

Don't forget

And I never did

She said

Don't regret

I always have

And the devil placed his bet

And I put everything I had

On Death

Against this

Somewhere

We must've meant this

But here

We're different

Here, we're something

Something

We have never been.