A Farewell Lullaby

My boy, steal your salty last breaths of the sea, for I see

Your innocence inching slowly toward the shore.

The coughs rack your ribcage and crab-claw your neck, and your skin

Suffocates in waves of shakes and sweats

But soon the foul vapours of old death will lift, while we laugh

For even now the Ether-men draw ever near.



Oh yes, my son, when the lonely gulls scream, phantoms will fall from their beaks

In a heiroglyph hail from high overhead, beckoning you for relief.

Shining like shattered stones in a storm, they will raise you - awake and unclad -

To a cacophonous clamour of smiling choirs

Crying raptured verse for the new lad

And below we will wave, admiring our boy among the Ether-men.