Shadowman

When it’s been years since Man’s race was undone,
I start to fear I shall die alone
I turn and think I hear a moan.
And see it’s only silence’s drone,
Like fuzzy white noise, or dial tone.
My first thought is, “I’ll die alone.”
Sitting in a single-chair room.
With a pile of dust by a dormant broom, 
A squeak from the wall, could a mouse there loom?
Some company when I face my doom?
Now silence again, I stare back straight,
Turn the dial on my oxygen tank.
I rub my head, my hairless dome,
“Why God, why am I dying alone?”
A peripheral shadow is vaguely shown
“It is not mine, so I can’t be alone!”
Was this, perhaps, who let out the moan?
Detached from the wall, the shadow comes near.
I lean in close, and speak in its ear,
“Angel or Demon, you I shan't fear,
Should you slay me or save me, 
Do stay with me here!”
It opens its mouth, unleashing a stench,
So rotten and vile, it makes my teeth clench.
Letting out a familiar moan,
“Why do you think you’re dying alone?”
“I have sins left unatoned.
Many Men have I done wrong.
All are dead now, and soon will I go.
I wish to join them, but not as a foe.
The pain of entire lives of ten,
Upon every single wrong done Man.”
“Why have you done these things, poor fool?”
“I sought to earn youth from the youth I stole.
Taking lives to extend my own,
And for this sin I must atone.
With all my research, no reward is shown,
but karmic punishment, of death, alone.”
At this, the Shadowman cast a grin.
“I too am guilty of this same sin.”
My face goes white, my heart nearly stops beating,
“Specter or Man, what is your meaning?”
“I know no good, nor evil. Only spite.
For I am a Shadow of the Night.
Not specter nor man, nor angel, nor demon.
And don’t blame yourself, man died in his season.
You craved immortality, your crave needs appeasing.
I give you this gift, the gift that you’re needing.”
I shake my head, “I am no longer that selfish heathen…”
The Shadowman, grinning, chuckled and hissed.
“You’ve earned this gift, and I must insist.”
He grasped my throat, and gave it a twist.
This broke the cord along my back.
I could move nothing below my neck,
Whereon there was ink, from this one sided strife.
And I felt the burden of Eternal Life.
I closed my eyes, and began to weep.
With Life Eternal, I crave endless sleep.
The Shadowman breathed out a motherly sigh,
And gazed at me with his dark, hollow eyes.
“Oh, young man, there’s no need to cry,
For I’ll make sure you never, ever die.”
Category:Poetry