Citadel rever berates to a thousand voices,

now dumb;

What have we become?

What have we chosen to be?

Now all history is reduced to the syllables

or our name -

nothing can ever be the same:

now the Immortals are here.

At the time it seemed a reasonable course

to harness all the force

of life without the threat of death, but

soon we found that boredom and inertia

are not negative, but all the law we know,

and dead are will and words like survival

Arrival at immunity from all age, all fear

and all end...

why do I pretend?

Our essence is distilled

and all familiar taste is now drained

and though purity is maintained

it leaves us sterile, living through the

millions of years,

a laugh as close as any tear;

living, if you claim that all

that entails is breathing, eating,

defacating, screwing, drinking, spewing,

sleeping, sinking ever down and down

and ultimately passing away time which

no longer has any meaning.



Take away the threat of death and all

you're left with is a round

if make-believe.

Marshall every sullen breath and though

you're ultimately bored by endless ectasy

it's still the ring by which you hope to be

engaged

to marry the girl who will give you

forever - it's crazy and plainly

that simply is not enough.



What is this dulles and bluntest of pains,

such that my eyes never close without

feeling it there?

What abject despair demands an end to

all things of infinity?

If we have gained, how do we now meet

the cost?

What have we bargained, and what have

we lost?

What have we relinquished, never

knowing it was thee?



What thoughts now of holding fast the

line, defying death and time?

Everything we had is gone,

everything we laboured for and favoured

more that earthly things reveals

the hollow ring of false hope and

false deliverance.



But now the nuptial bed is made, the

dowry has been paid:

the toothless, haggard features of eternity

now welcome me between the sheets

to couple with her withered body -

my wife.

Hers forever,

hers forever,

hers forever,

in still life