[Qorban:]
"Through blood and thorns I wandered,
Freezing, aching, bound for a ruined cathedral below.

All is dead, look! Only rust, and debris,
And shells of stone remain, drowning in ashes, a
S if we had never been. Everyone I had ever known.

Everyone I'd ever meet.
Everyone I ever loved.
Gone with the centuries, lost under a sea of ashes."


Only now when every chance
To belong

Is bitterly gone
I feel I do


For the very first time
I understand
The gift we had

Now forever gone

All I ever knew lie dead

And their epitaphs the ashes guard
Must I live to mourn the world
Or find reunion once the ashes part


For I am chosen
To speak

At the open grave
Of each and everyone


How can I mourn
For every man?
May I soon

Lie with them

[Qorban:]

"How can I go on, when all I have is a grave?
When one place is as good as another,
To lie down and belatedly join where I belong. Let it end here, with me."


This unearthly knell
A deadly gale, or

A grace of life?