| It thrusts against the sky, that fallow womb
|
| While the waters we raised lap its lurid weight
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| Listen:
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| In these austere halls
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| The generations echo unlived
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| Their laughter muted, their tears unshed
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| See:
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| On these pristine walls and barren floors
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| A silent perfection that no one will witness
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| No one can access
|
| These honeycomb cells house tenants, too
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| The churn of the sea, the rippling heat
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| And the private stillnesses of corpseless tombs
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| Down in the drowned boiler room
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| Some cold soul stirs
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| It turns in its lonely repose
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| To recall memories it never birthed
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| Who would mourn them, those pinioned fools
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| Now spared their sorry fate:
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| To subsist on the bitter fruit
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| That passes for survival, in these vile final days?
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| The dead-end jobs and the chronic aches
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| The food that sallows, and the jokes from the gallows
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| The cry-choked air and the fat-cloaked bones
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| The poisons to love, and the leaders to hate
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| The grey lives endured with purposeless grace
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| What wild spirit could thrive on such pain?
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| What primal will would cling to this place? |