Tempus Fugit, Mors Venit - Complete Work

Tempus Fugit, Mors Venit

Chapter 1 - Here And Now

I walk along the cobbled street with dead leaves crackling under my hard
sole as the wind blows up storms of debris that try to blind my sight.
There are others here around me, walking and talking in muted speech,
lost in shadows that only I can see either in darkness or in light.

I am the one they all fail to see. They pass by without a second glance.
Why would they look in my direction when they would not recognise me.
For I am the man without a face. No beating heart, no pulse, no breath
I am the man they all know and fear but they do not recognise me.

The old town never changes here. The haunted alleys and dim-lit taverns,
always the same whenever I pass by, always full of the same skeletons in skin.
I hear the sounds though a velvet veil, the sounds of life slowly ticking away,
the sounds of life desperately trying to survive while it knows it cannot ever win

From the windows of homes to the bums beneath bridges huddled around fires,
their eyes seek but they never find. If they could they still wouldn't recognise me. Only once in their lives do they look me straight in the eyes. Yet for all they do,
and although they then see, they always fail to recognise me

I sit upon a wooden bench to rest my bones awhile in the dark sun, watching
ghostly faced children playing on a grassy knoll, their eyes sunken as I see them always.
I see no colour only variations of black and I see no flesh upon their bones at all. I
see only what will lie in a casket in the ground after each individuals end of days.

For me there is no ending, only a road that flows on through your world.
It's true colour would likely be that of blood if you could only recognise me.
Yet there could be a day, near or far, when the impossible task with be done.
You will see me coming and make use of your time when you finally recognise me.


Chapter 2 - Prelude To The Tale

My bones they ache, but I do not feel, for life is not now mine to own
unless you believe that to exist forever is a blessing and not a curse.
And the work I do would pain my heart if one did beat within my open chest
and through my empty eyes I see that to have a soul would also be worse.

You may question how I came to be, what demon dreamt me into being, as I
myself have pondered in time as I eternally walk the Earth.
The story I will tell you, one and all, for you to know the life I don't live.
Though I do not tout for pity or hate, I just wish to bestow knowledge of worth.

For now though I must leave a moment for my duty calls me, to which I am bound.
For only once have I had a choice to make and the consequences were clear to see.
Please rest your ears for a short while turn away from where you think I am.
Be glad it is not you I am being called to, be glad you do not recognise me.


Chapter 3 - The Garden

My story begins at the dawn of man, where the records are unclear at best.
When the tales of the Bible meet those that belong to the scientists who believe in evolution.
Every religion has its questions and doubts whether we were created from fire or flesh.
I will tell you now of what I know and you may within my tale find your solution.

You see I was the first to walk the land without hair, and with the power of speech.
In the Garden of Eden my tender feet did tread and Adam was my given name.
Now the story of creation is both true and false as from primate I did evolve into man,
but the voice of God did instruct my hand and to my lover He did the same.

Only two of us He did touch with His finger, his plan brilliant and clear to see.
That He wanted to create a new species of life to develop His world beyond grass and sky.
He wanted this new breed called man to gain knowledge to build and to burn,
to think and speak in a way that would change as the centuries and millennia rolled by.

I'm sure you recall the tale of the snake, the serpent of often dubious intention.
He did indeed exist and tempt us to eat the fruit and through him my fate came to be.
By that time I had children to continue our growth, though more of their story I will later tell.
So no mercy was shown when I succumbed to the beast and took a bite of the apple forbidden to me.

The voice of my creator did shake the land and his hand above me it did appear.
With an ancient command spoken from His tongue the flesh from my bones did begin to tear.
The indescribable agony that tore me apart was the last pain I would ever feel as a man,
and as I fell to the floor in pool of blood and gore, my eyes were ripped out to leave an eternal stare.

Unseen hands groped inside my body, claws piercing muscle and organs at will.
I was not able to defend myself against them as my intestines were spilt on the floor.
My heart was squeezed with cruel callous hands and the immense pain brought a violent spasm until the chambers collapsed.
My life came to an end and I lost my soul and my life forever more.

Then the pain was gone and I was left as a frame of bones upon crimson grass I could not feel.
The senses I had known, sight, sound, smell, touch and taste had departed with my flesh and been replaced
by two new ones that chilled my bones, changed my vision to shades of death
and gave me the smells of decay that filled my skull and would never from memory be erased.

Then the voice of God spoke to me with words that seemed to come from in my head.
‘This is your curse until the end of existence, the burden you
will carry for your crime.
You will walk this earth through thousands of years with nothing but the power of Death at your fingers.
Now you must take your first victim right here for to start your task I can see no better time'

I rose to my feet, naked bones, nothing more, and turned to face my love, Eve, with no emotion
as tears streamed from her eyes and dripped from her chin, while she knew she stared Death in the face.
I reached out a hand and touched her breast to stop her heart so she fell where
she stood.
She was the first of an infinitum of lives that would be taken by me without trace

I was banished from the Garden as is only right for a murderer cannot be granted such luxury.
I left behind my love, my children and my faith to walk in the darkness that only I could see.
At the Gates of the Garden I saw my face, a hollow shadow on the shining silver post,
and that was when I saw for the very first time that no-one – not even I – could
recognize me.


Chapter 4 - The Price

I lived in exile for many years after first using the touch  of death which was mine,
with only the price and purpose that I knew would be  mine forever in time.
For those years of exile removed from me the last  human thoughts I possessed 
and replaced them with nothing and an emptiness that filled the hollow carcass of  mine.

I could measure the days and nights but found no reason to gauge their passing.
I was never going to die so I did not need to worry of how I would use what remained for me.
I felt neither heat of the day, nor cold of night, did not know the touch of  the  desert sand
and could not taste the waters that ran so clear. apart from my curse I had no reason to be.

That curse did come to be just that when  I was finally required to use my touch again
to end the so short life of a mortal man and I retread my steps back to the Garden's Gate.
Some things remain mysteries in our eyes, like how I always knew who I had been sent to find
and when my dark gaze fell upon my eldest son any thoughts of saving my soul began to dissipate.

The sons and daughters of Adam and Eve were doomed to die one day as they all knew.
I had never thought it would be by my own hand their last breaths from their bodies would be claimed.
That was the lesson I learned well and fast, that Death waits for all men through their lives.
No matter what others see take that life the price I pay is I am always to blame.


Chapter 5 - The Long Road Of Time

So my journey as the Death of men began with my love and my son, then went on through
the early years when the race was young, when humans were fresh and new.
I froze the blood of the first civilizations, closed their hearts in their chests as they stood.
I saw Noah's demise after he survived the flood of God and the others who died in the waters deep and blue.

In the new world that came next I travelled on until my time once again came.
I took the lives of man, woman and child as their images came into my eyes.
Prophets and Kings were no different, no different than the paupers and the beggars.
Even the Son of God, yes Christ himself found, for a short while, that every man dies.

On down the long road I wandered, my fleshless feet walking on sand, stone and dirt.
Through hundreds of years in floating black robes, alone but for the souls of the departed.
Their haunting cries belong to only me, their sorrow and pain mine for eternity
and although I do not feel I still know too well of those left behind in their wake broken hearted.

Pontius Pilate and William the First. Marco Polo, Columbus and Henry VII to name a few
all  fell  to  the  power of my deadly hand, Their power in life meaning nothing to Death.
Leaders Lincoln, Hitler and Churchill. Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach of the music world.
The victims of Jack The Ripper too did die, slain like the tragic character of
Macbeth.

My way now goes on and on, millennia have passed me by without a glance
as I have taken
innocent lives like roses from a bush. From newborn babies to a Princess so sublime
I have watched the pain I cause through this darkness I exist within; unable to feel,
unable to love as the people do. Only able to move on along the long road of time.


Chapter 6 - Reflections

So there you are, you know my tale from gruesome beginning to the lonesome end.
I'm not sure what you think of me now or if you even heard anything of what I've said.
I would like to say I do not blame you if you feel sorry for me, hate me or are unsure
of what you should feel for this creature, this monster of creation that will render you dead.

All I ask is do not fear that I may come and steal your life as you
slumber at night,
for there is a much worse fate that could wait for you than to die by my treacherous hand.
I'm sure you'll agree that the fate which is mine is quite fittingly a fate worse than death.
To walk through time with infinite souls in tow without emotion that other men can command.

But as I have said do not waste your pity on such a wretched abomination of God as I.
I do not feel it, cannot thank you for it and in the end by my finger you will still pass on.
I would say I am glad that I do not feel but the emotion of joy also passes me by.
At least I do not suffer the hurt felt by those left behind when they find their lovers and friends have gone.

My one regret, if I could have one that is, was the death of my one true
love, Eve.
Back then in the Garden I was a complete man, I had everything right there before me.
I have asked myself many times why I had to be cursed with this affliction of immortality,
To travel on and on the long road to the end of time, To go unseen by people who do not recognize me.

I will leave you now for my journey goes on and will do long after everyone around me is dead.
I do not know when your time will come just yet but I guarantee I will be there to see you go.
So be grateful of  the time you have here for your greatest gift is that it is relatively
short.
Eternal life is not always what it seems and I have realized it moves agonizingly slow.

I walk along the cobbled street, just the shadow of a man once called Adam.
Death is my name until the end of the race of man when what will become of me I cannot foresee.
I have hoped many times that at end of days God will finally rest my bones in the ground,
but the other souls of the departed will not let me rest as I know they are all sure to recognize me.