First Light

Long pastures drift into the unhindered fog and vanish
A few branches pierce the sky
Mist curls upwards from the blackened earth, escaping into soundless wind
A lone crow twitches, pecking furiously at his feathers
The cold has set in,
The wind becoming an earth-born ocean intruding deep into our hearts.

Fossils of leaves lie bent in shapes and hapless...
Faint echoes signal the dusk is falling from afar
Burning through with a stunned fire.

The serpents have been awoken.

Clouds collapse in uneven formations cloaking the earth in a strange depth
The glowing after-burn of the sun is left as a straight line shot across the horizon, disappearing before our eyes
Darkness, consuming and thirst-full, inches forward.

There are no signs of life in this wilderness
Even the shaky breath of a whisper is lost in the silence
Blackness
Death
Hissing
A seeping plague
Strong and eternal

We are left alone
Walking blind with arms outstretched
Breath and curses turning to ice on lips and tongues
Turning faster and faster in this utter emptiness.

We roam, alone.
Separated by the hostility of night.

Eyes shadowed and fingers crooked we await the first light.