1. |
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Collapsing
the structures of consciousness
as the tendrils of thought extend through the manifold void
to grasp and pull at the web of endless abstraction
I pass through the barriers of slumber
and break free of my corporeal form
here at the nexus where impossibilities materialize
cascading realities
emerge out of the nothingness
I float through the dimensionless ether
linear perception fragmented and scattered
into a mirrored mosaic showing reflections of infinite selves
in infinite worlds
each taking form with the blink of the mind's eye
absorbing a fraction of me
and I feel myself stray from myself
drawn in by alluring improbability
overwhelmed by that which could be
the splintering of my identity
collapsing
the structures of consciousness
now my sanity erodes with the unveiling
of potentialities, endlessly decreated
at the nexus of all stillborn worlds
the eyes of my infinite selves stare back in maddening silence
as the path leading back to my reality falls away
I am lost
in a labyrinth of my own mind's creation
where the familiar has assumed a distorted disguise
I am scared
will this oneiric vastness forever entomb me?
where is the doorway back to the waking world I recognize?
I am faltering in this maze
every exit is false
at the end of each corridor lies
a turn into endless uncertainty
Is it me who is dreaming?
Or am I one of those that never was -
a figment in a stillborn reality?
Release me!
take me back beyond
beyond the veil of impossibility
absolve me of this static agony
Collapsed
the structures of consciousness
never to be rebuilt
the labyrinth crumbles
and all that remains around me is the void
Release me!
take me back beyond
beyond the veil of impossibility
If I am not meant to be, then unmake me
Collapsed
the structures of consciousness
the labyrinth is gone
yet I remain at the nexus of all stillborn worlds
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2. |
Accursed
01:12
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3. |
Lethe's Shroud
04:25
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Lethe is drawing her shroud around me
casting a shadow over my mind
a shadow that extends little by little, night after night
my memories withering beneath it, in a place my consciousness cannot find
there were names I once knew
and faces I once recognized
they now loom in a haze of obscurity
not far from my mind, but forever lost to me
tell me what it is I have lost
what has been stolen from me
tell me, but I cannot recall what you say
wasting away in the clutches of this disease
such is the plague that runs through my veins
such is my curse
to see my reality fade
into dismal mirages
slipping further and further into an unending, languid dream
such is the plague that runs through my veins
such is my curse
to live what remains of my days as a burden
and cast kith and kin into deepest despair
as they watch me succumb
as they watch me regress into obliviousness
as they watch me deteriorate
as they watch me forget
Tighter and tighter, Lethe's shroud suffocates me
darker and darker, the shadow envelops my mind
the vessel of wisdom permanently enucleated
all the bonds I have forged so cruelly severed
tell me what it is I have lost
what has been stolen from me
lead me back to the light, but I'll always lose my way
My sanity eroded by this disease
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4. |
The First Hunter
04:58
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Paleblood,
Unshackle me from this dream
Her memory no longer sustains my desire to go on
Why must this night be unending?
What nightmare remains to be slain?
Where is the one who will take up this burden from me?
unspoken the covenant
confining me here
to this fraudulent realm
of stagnant tranquility
timeless and forlorn
Penitence
for a hunter with a sickly soul
he who becomes the beast he was sworn to destroy
a villain I was
blasphemous murderer, blood-crazed fiend
still I fail to see how this captivity will absolve me
The ritual revealed, the red moon looms ominous now
Paleblood, is this at last the night that we part?
The surrogate child which you craved
can no more withstand your embrace.
the newborn's cry silenced
the dream stands ablaze
My offer of absolution has been refused
oh what a fool, to desire such an ending
to seek to remain in this dream
to usurp this miserable throne for countless more nights
to awake and forget would be mercy
but a blood-drunk beast must be put down
good hunter, you'd do well to perish beneath my scythe
"Venator
Ah mi summus venata
Anima tor feci so vre re mal?
Venare insidiosus
Mira tenebrarum
Hic sic scitis miseriae aeterna"
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5. |
The Hole
05:52
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Blood drips from bare walls of coarse stone
Blood drips from beneath my avulsed fingernails as I mark
my forty-first day alone
alone in this hole
through stuporous hours, engulfed in silence and sickly fluorescence
bolt upright I sit and wordlessly stare
into the cracks and the crevices
awaiting the whispers' return
They were timid at first
vague shapes embedded in masonry
hints of eyes, fangs and tentacles
motion perceived where none could have been
ephemeral to sight but not memory
As the days passed the details coalesced into forms,
vivid and tenebrous
otherworldly and monstrous
Next came the whispers
ghostly voices, vibrating amidst the hum
at the edge of the audible spectrum
in eldritch, unknowable tongues, yet I understood
imprisoned just outside the sphere of our world
as alone and hungry as I
they pled for emancipation
for release into the realm that they once called their own
They call out for offerings
of blood and of semen,
of skin and of hair
deepening my obligation
with each successive act of self-mutilation
their voices grow louder and louder
a harrowing unison of undefinable phonemes extolling the deed
they show me their sigil
a baffling scrawl of concentric shapes
I trace it in blood on the floor
reeling from the euphoria of exsanguination
the shrieks are unceasing
but still they will not emerge from their prison
the minutes crawl by and the voices grow faint
until eventually they disappear
replaced by a silence that's broken only by my own weakening breath
collapsed in the corner I stare at the cracks and the crevices
but they do not return for me
my vision fades
I am betrayed and alone
dying here in this hole
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6. |
Universal Deceit
04:37
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Atomized and enervated
we stumble blindly through the haze
induced to languish in alienation
reduced to wallow in paranoid speculation
Constant cross-talk intoxicates
browbeating the beaten-down
at cross purposes prevaricate
riven, futureless, in enmity we drown
broken the promise
of worldly endowment
unshattered life such a callow conceit
broken the mind of a profligate polity
the harrowed embrace universal deceit
obscured to us
the threads of causality
seized by the hands of covetous men
moths to the flame of alluring conspiracy
perpetuating false consciousness
wellsprings of knowledge
churn foul with their poison
blurred is the line between wisdom and madness
conjuring myths
to lay claim to supremacy
over what soon will be ashes
lambs to the slaughter
along with their scapegoats
satanic mills retch forth effluvia
parasites exalted as apex predators
hurtling towards dystopia
beggars in the shadow of opulence
lepers in the lap of the gods
nothing left to lose but these onerous chains
will there remain a world to gain?
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7. |
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Predation perfected
borne upon wings of unstable dimensions and shapes
above a city that drowns in their psychic excretions
sleepwalking through terror below
indomitable, rapacious
severing the gossamer threads
upon which the stratum of sanity is suspended
so that they may drink of the nectar of sapience
to slake a thirst that endures, unending
for intimate contents of subconscious minds
breaking the dams that hold back
all hidden guilty thoughts, cravings, anxieties, delights
mad, impenetrable,
unspeakable menace in the clouds
psychically contaminates
the sky bleeds nightmares
narcotizing patterns morphing ceaselessly
upon their wings, paralyzing prey
jagged tentacles and bone-serrated limbs
probing tongues that seek to drain...
drain of consciousness and leave behind
an incapacitated, brain-dead husk
ghastly and lascivious aerial ballet
procreation in hermaphroditic lust
Upon a distressed populace descends
the glutinous effluvia
of incomprehensible minds
it rends asunder the membrane of sleep
and haunts the sunlit realm
Predation perfected
lepidopteran monstrosities stalk the skies
desperate strategies enacted to subdue the horror
before all complex thought is undone
lucidity is fading
corrupted cognition saturates the void
consort with devils to vanquish devils
and pray that you are not yourself, in turn, destroyed
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8. |
Irredeemable
10:56
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I awakened beneath the earth
remembering nothing
in a chamber of arcane machinery
from a forgotten time
Pale yellow light from some unseen source assaulted my eyes
Then an elder emerged from the shadows beyond
"This is where you reside now, child,"
His voice echoed diffuse throughout the vastness,
"This is where I preserve the forgotten wonders
from the time before the world was engulfed in fire.
You will be my apprentice until the time
comes that I pass from this world."
Erudition came slowly to me,
the child of an ignorant tribe
with no written language
Yet with time I came to know
and comprehend the texts that the elder
collected for safekeeping here in the vault
chronicles of the days
before the Deluge of Flames
of the days when my kind
still held dominion over this world
when the tribes swelled in numbers
to the thousands of thousands, united only in mutual distrust
of the men by which they were led
irredeemable men guided by ego and greed and fallacy
and the weapons they made
spears envenomed with poison that came from below
poison the learned could turn into fire
with the promise of death
they kept one another at bay
breeding contempt in the shadow of fragile prosperity
Many could see the portents of a gathering storm
as the tyrants arose in the foremost of tribes
When prosperity crumbled and the throngs could not be mollified
they cast forth their spears and set ablaze the skies
And in an instant there was fire
and in an instant there was doom
and in an instant the towers they raised to the sky
would all crumble to dust
and the wonders they built through the ages fell into silence
for those few who remained would not reclaim the lightning that brought them to life
Then the books closed, lessons completed
so he spoke,
"Yours is to return the light to this world
when the fallen discover the wisdom they never quite found, you must open the vault."
And he bade me venture out among them,
concealing my face and intent.
To know of the tribes and seek out who leads them
for theirs shall the purview become when the splendor returns.
Not long thereafter he passed from this world
and left me in solitude
a mortal empowered as godlike
granted command over all I surveyed.
And as I was bidden, I would journey forth
among the scattered tribes
and I would witness their pitiful state
consumed by ignorance, avarice and hate
imperious lords compelling their subjects
with iron fists and poison tongues
as in antiquity, hopelessly lost
ever unworthy, still irredeemable
I watch the moon cycle
and feel myself age
three-score winters have passed since I first woke underground
My flesh grows weary
yet they remain the same
thrall to the vice that compels from on high
War without end
a bounty of grief
birthright to every child brought into this world
Beyond salvation
still I hold the key to their fate
grandeur I bring forth embodied in death
Is this act righteous
or have I succumbed
to madness as all gods eventually must?
From beneath the mountains
I summon the spears
the moment of their absolution is finally here.
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