The Tide That Knows No Shore

The final silence deeper than the grave, A vast unmaking where all memories wave And then subside like ripples on a shore That knows no tide and will remember no more. The self dissolves, a sugar in the rain Of nothingness where joy and sorrow wane To indistinction, a forgotten hue, The vibrant spectrum fading into blue, Then grey, then absence utterly complete, A cancelled echo, a surrendered seat. No stars to guide, no darkness to define, Just an erasure of the fragile line That separates existence from the void, A story finished utterly destroyed. The grandest empires crumble into dust, Their triumphs muted by a final rust Of time unburdened by their fleeting reign, Swept clean away as if they caused no pain Nor brought forth beauty, simply ceased to be, A footnote lost in vast eternity. Our fleeting passions, loves that burned so bright, The fears that haunted through the lonely night, The triumphs savored, bitterest regret, All find their ending where they never met The light of being swallowed by the maw Of utter absence defying any law Of preservation, meaning, or design, A final curtain drawn across all sign. Is there a peace within this endless sleep? A liberation from the vows we keep To memory, to feeling, to the trace Of what we were within this fleeting space? Or just a terror facing the unknown fall, A consciousness extinguished, losing all? Perhaps it's not a darkness, sharp and cold, But just the absence of the stories told. The book unwritten, the song left unsung, The silent bell that never will be rung. And in that absence, is there something vast, A pure potential freed from what has passed? A canvas waiting utterly serene, Before the brushstrokes of what might have been? Oblivion whispers not with mournful sound, But with the stillness where no self is found. A final answer or the lack thereof, A letting go, surrendering all love And hate and longing, every earthly tie, Beneath the gaze of an unblinking sky That will not notice when we cease to roam, Lost in the vast and silent coming home. ©bfa041325