KINGDOM OF GLOOM

The night calls

Its arms reaching out across the skies

The Midas of doom

With his cold touch spreading emptiness.

Engulfing light

Swallowing hope

This Kingdom of gloom is now here to stay.

It tempts me as my paramour

Kissing me on my anxious lips

As it fills me with its void

Holding my forsaken hand

As it passes me its lifeless chill

Taking me in its infinite embrace

As it wipes me of myself.

Creatures of light roam demented

Gabriel wanders his path lost

The sun has abandoned the land where it shone

The moon a fading reflection of light now gone

Cerberus has left his post

Charon no longer rows his boat

The land of living is now that of the dead.

Where there once was life

Phantasms now scream

Where there once was love

Hatred now leads

These monuments of glory now lie broken

Heaven a dream forgotten

And hell now is all that remains.

I roam

On feet that leave no prints

I speak

In words that carry no voice

I exist

A spectre of living

In an empire of the fallen.

ASHWINI UDGATA

DECEMBER 8, 2024