Shadowman

 When it’s been years since Man’s race was undone,

 I start to fear I shall die alone

 I turn and think I hear a moan.

 And see it’s only silence’s drone,

 Like fuzzy white noise, or dial tone.

 My first thought is, “I’ll die alone.”

 Sitting in a single-chair room.

 With a pile of dust by a dormant broom,

 A squeak from the wall, could a mouse there loom?

 Some company when I face my doom?

 Now silence again, I stare back straight,

 Turn the dial on my oxygen tank.

 I rub my head, my hairless dome,

 “Why God, why am I dying alone?”

 A peripheral shadow is vaguely shown

 “It is not mine, so I can’t be alone!”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Was this, perhaps, who let out the moan?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Detached from the wall, the shadow comes near.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> I lean in close, and speak in its ear,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “Angel or Demon, you I shan't fear,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Should you slay me or save me,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Do stay with me here!”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> It opens its mouth, unleashing a stench,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> So rotten and vile, it makes my teeth clench.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Letting out a familiar moan,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “Why do you think you’re dying alone?”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “I have sins left unatoned.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Many Men have I done wrong.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> All are dead now, and soon will I go.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> I wish to join them, but not as a foe.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> The pain of entire lives of ten,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Upon every single wrong done Man.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “Why have you done these things, poor fool?”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “I sought to earn youth from the youth I stole.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Taking lives to extend my own,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> And for this sin I must atone.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> With all my research, no reward is shown,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> but karmic punishment, of death, alone.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> At this, the Shadowman cast a grin.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “I too am guilty of this same sin.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> My face goes white, my heart nearly stops beating,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “Specter or Man, what is your meaning?”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “I know no good, nor evil. Only spite.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> For I am a Shadow of the Night.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Not specter nor man, nor angel, nor demon.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> And don’t blame yourself, man died in his season.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> You craved immortality, your crave needs appeasing.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> I give you this gift, the gift that you’re needing.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> I shake my head, “I am no longer that selfish heathen…”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> The Shadowman, grinning, chuckled and hissed.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “You’ve earned this gift, and I must insist.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> He grasped my throat, and gave it a twist.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> This broke the cord along my back.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> I could move nothing below my neck,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> Whereon there was ink, from this one sided strife.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> And I felt the burden of Eternal Life.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> I closed my eyes, and began to weep.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> With Life Eternal, I crave endless sleep.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> The Shadowman breathed out a motherly sigh,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> And gazed at me with his dark, hollow eyes.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> “Oh, young man, there’s no need to cry, For I’ll make sure you never, ever die.”

--Uberbunk11 (talk) 09:44, March 15, 2014 (UTC)Uberbunk11