VALLEY OF BONES

I have stood upon the mountain tops.
I have rested upon the wings of soaring eagles,
their feathers of silver and gold a celestial pillow.
I have lain slain in the valley of bones, death more than a shadow – holding my heart in its hands.

Yet I do not fear death.
I fear the end of love, the losses that await me once more.
My heart eternally filled with ‘the missing’ –
there is no escape from that kind of sorrow.
Living what you love, your lifeblood, offers a reprieve
from the sorrows of goodbye, allowing you… us… to move forward.

As each new moon rises into the heavens,
I feel my lifeblood slowly bleeding away.
Surrounded by eyeless trees who offer only the chill of their silence,
the universal clock ticking the seconds away,
as if each second were a single day.
I cannot stop time from moving, though I war against it.

I hear creation’s groan, I feel heaven’s unrest,
I see the blazing roar of hell.
War is coming.
I cannot rage against the inevitable, though I have tried.
There is no victory to be had, despite my relentlessness.

All this said will fall upon too many deaf ears and minds
quick to the assumption rack of humanity.
But for a few, with a heart to understand, perhaps you will remember me,
long after I’ve whispered the one word I vowed to never say again.
A life of too many goodbyes weighs upon a soul in the worst of ways.

I cannot say it again, knowing it will mean forever,
when I do not want my lifeblood to be just a memory.
When I do not want to close my eyes and awake under a different sky, exiled from all those I love, and all that I once dreamt of and fought for.
But heaven has made its ruling, and my tears will not buy a miracle. Yahweh does not destroy, mankind does.

I shall not seek another mountain top, for I do not need its height.
I will not soar with the eagles, for I do not need their feathers.
Instead, I will walk through the valley of bones, my flesh perfectly intact,
and I will watch the valley come back to life.
I will wait until the time is right,
and then I will raze hell with those long forgotten risen souls.
I will destroy all those who tried to destroy me with a single word.
Forever begins soon, and though forgotten, I will never forget.

— Saskia Lynge / Hour 11