Down here, we all are one
Down here, we deal in four-score
And if you’re not family best leave us alone
Yeah, if you’re not family just leave us alone
THE THIRD REICH
So much, so little
Such drab and such drivel
We contort to the clock
Lest we like it or not
The hours tick by
As seasons do dry
Death and division
What's nuclear fission?
Compression, convex
Molting, complex
Chrysalis analysis
Regulated dialysis
On box, and on fox
Take your cootie-shot
In car or on plane
Succumb to your veins
What is this that stands before me?
Hark, it just a crooked doorway
Such tidings and giggles
Coquettish, belittled
Death improvised
And yet, some survive
The hours plod on
Devoid of the dawn
Maledictions inscribed
Fatuitous jive
Compressed and repulsed
Hypodermic remorse
Chrysanthemum-gigantism
Esoteric retorts
What is this that looms before me?
Hark, it just another doorway
So much, so little
Sadistic, enabled
Death circumscribed
Morally deprived
Lo! Hark!
And I lurk inside
In my mew, I do hide
Come and search for me
I dwell just beyond the archway
Beyond the blue
And in the pale
Don't linger here
This is Hell
THE FOURTH GATE
Doing nothing
Feeling nothing
Bereft of maudlin curmudgeon
What is this that stands before me?
Just another canted doorway
Sighing, Perplexed and vexed
I snidely snorted
"Fuck you guys, my path is North-ways"
I had an idea
Then I lost it
Scurried off
Like lambent roaches
Spangled fears
Reluctant cheers
We've lived our lives
Counting drear
Shut up
Stop making excuses
Shut up, you
What excuses?
The ones that blind us
Like white-noise
Lulling us to sleep
Life un-enjoyed
But we're too busy
With the hurry
Hustle, bustle
Scribble, scrabble
Skitter, fritter
We forget
That blissful winter
We once enjoyed
When us childer
And un-employed
Thusly then
And only then
When the snow fell upon my up-turned face
I knew my path
And destiny
This is Hell
Don't follow me
DOORWAY #5
Silently, incipiently
I've breached another door in darkness
On my knees
I slogged toward it
Adytum, mew
Whatever you call it
Here and now
I dwell inside it
Excavate, emerge
From the gloom
I'm reborn
Inside my maw
New teeth are torn
I hunger
I thirst
I sate and slake
And then hibernate
Nihilists and atheists
Quake before the one true hate
Deep inside
Demons do hide
On our anger
They do thrive
This prison built
Of our free-will
Beleaguered here
Besieged by Hell
Angrily, I fight against it
The rip pulls me under
I struggle
I suffocate
I remain
Ensconced in Hell
Lost in rage
Forever here
INFERNO THE SIXTH
Juxtaposed, and torn asunder
Meticulously, I wormed onward
Slogging forth, advancing nowhere
Through the desiccate abyss
Loitering
Idled here
Shrug, gasp, sigh
Another doorway
"Fuck this shit, my path is North-ways!"
Yet, against my will
My feet turned south
Still dwelling here
Brooding doubts
Egotism, mysticism
In the gloom
The one-true vision
Lateralized before mine eyes
Hark, Lo!
Bundle up, dear childer
I feel another bitter winter
Curdling within my bones
The carillon's requiem
Long-lost tomes
Extrapolate the yearning soul
Yet, another verbose excuse
Just live your life
Time will soothe
But still, we can't let go of those grudges
Slanders, slights, and up-and-comers
Challengers who beat us down
Put up your dukes
I'm older now
Like frayed and fractured pictures of my youth
Yet the reveries stripped from mine eyes
Such relief, such privilege
Such dissolute
All fades to ubiquitous blackness
I slink into my cell
Death was once a doorway
The reality is Hell
THE ARC OF DESCENT
A darkness surrounds me, it holds me, and binds me
A weak light that flickers intensely before me
And here in this abyss
A doorway that closes after I have passed through it
‘Cause its pitch-black
Twenty-twenty visions all I see
Night terror’s darkness encompassing me
Pitch-black
Twenty-twenty visions all I see
Night terror’s darkness is throttling me
An axis of embers guides me, directs me
With my eyes wide open I see more clearly in the dark
‘Cause its pitch-black
Twenty-twenty visions all I see
Night terror’s darkness imprisoning me
Pitch-black
Twenty-twenty visions all I see
Night terror’s darkness is swallowing me
I toss and turn within my self
Watching me sleep below
I feel the cold caress of elongated fingers upon my quivering body
And those hollow whispers hold
They tell me to lie still
They tell me to behave
I quaver in resentment
And if I could, I’d rage
They smell the scent upon me
Knowing I’m not their own
I thrash alone in silence
In the dark but not alone
I wander in the gloom
This is all my fault
My brash, my lust, my arrogance
I have traveled too far
Much too far and too long
I have drawn this curse upon me
And now, all I do is scream
NINE RINGS
Nine rings
7 saints
Behemoth soldiers standing firmly at the gates
Two geese
3 crows
Daniel’s wearing a fine lion-fur-coat
Apocryphal
Ethereal
Hey, pull over, Noah
I think we got a hole in the boat
Five swine
1 Grace
Meteorological canonical mistakes
Thirteen virgins
No pants
Gabriel’s gettin’ down but he can’t dance
Evangelical
Mysterious
Hey, pull over, Noah
I think we’re going down with the flood
I’ve seen the whole damned world burn down in flames
I’ve seen man turn into monkey into graves
I’ve seen free-will revoked by our own thoughts
Ring around the black rainbow
Pockets full of Polio
Give ‘em manna, wine, or cake
How could things exacerbate?
Ten laws
6 wraiths
Symptomatic symbiotic microwaves
13 prophets
A million fleas
Philosophical
Delirious
Hey, pull over, Noah
I think we’re lost in the storm
30 plates
What scrub?
Who else wants to ride a different short-bus?
50 damsels
One dress
Ideologically moronic consumer distress
Pyrrhonist
Malodorous
Hey, pull over, Noah
I think we need to send an S.O.S.
I’ve seen the whole damned world flush down the drain
I’ve seen man turn into mongoose into maize
I’ve seen Hellfire and brimstone
Ring around the black rainbow
Pockets full of Polio
Let them binge until they break
How could things exacerbate?
100 ships
No shore
Navigational rotational discord
Minus body
1 revenant
Manic idiomatic peregrine
Discorporate
Lascivious
Hey, pull over, Noah
I think we need a bigger tub
I’ve seen the death that breaks before the dawn
I’ve escaped the gloom that lurks upon the lawn
I’ve been to Hell and back again, for fuck’s sake
Seven guards with Polio
Couldn’t lull me to my hole
In corporal form
I do hide
This mask, this shape, this disguise
Ha! I’ve tricked you all
Nine rings
7 saints
Couldn’t drag me back with iron staves
One more door to violate
My shoulder quashed against the gate
Palpitating, impatiently
Anxious, and yet, with such glee
Give’th way the blockade
And...
And...
And...
Oh, shit
It’s darker here
THE FINAL ARCHWAY
Deep, profound, and oblique
I slam another door
Stewing in my anger, as my father did before
Pissed, enraged, I can’t let go
Perhaps, my dove another crow
We need to talk this out
‘Though I fear of what unfolds
Death is not a doorway
Just pusillanimity
I can’t go on like this
I won’t go on like this
We shant go on this way
I pray to God for courage
He replies, “You know what to say”
This life, my own prison
Either or, which path chosen
This Hell dare I escape?
###
About the author:
Joshua S. Friedman is quiet, secluded man, bearing down for the impending Apocalypse.
The Chronicles of Dog and Troll: Book 1 – Of Dog and Troll
The Chronicles of Dog and Troll: Book 2 – The Diary of Myriam Star