Pathway through Sadness

Matt Schnarr

there stands a man
in one hand he holds a slick ebony cane
in the other a void black top-hat
he wears a suit stitched with distain
as dark as a morbid tomb
a shirt as white as innocence
his vest as grey as apathy
the trees behind him have no growth
a lack of love
leaves them skeletal
and burnt brown
around his feet dried grass
reach to a grey sky
like decayed fingers of the damned
reaching for a blue heaven
and while the sun seeps through sadness
in a platinum light
it is captured in his monicle
but never seen on the other side
his eye remains motionless
seeing no color in the death around him
feeling no emotion as the sun burns his head
a drop of sweat mimicks a tear for an uncaring eye
as it hits the ground a blood rose blooms
its stem ash black
thorns blushing with greed
spiny leaves of disease
it grows, slithering up his leg
cutting its circulation
leaving voids to fill up with blood
to mold the shape of pain
this goes unnoticed
as does the field of blood red roses behind him
seen through the hole in his chest
simmering from its last encounter
an endless sea of blood and ash
each petal a memory lost
to selfishness in the form of ambition
each flower an homage to a wasted life
patches of dead grass
are shaped into foot-prints
from a forest of decayed life
to a cliff over a burning sea of fire

each step takes as long as eternity
lasting shorter than his past joys
manifesting rows of roses
dewing teardrops out of unnoticed sympathy
forever he walks in a straight path
where he's been he's never seen
where he goes he'll never want to know