Blackout

Death has its own whiteness
like the ash that falls
not quite like snow
from a volcanic blast

It has its own silence
Like the soundless horn
of radiation blow
that turns now into past

Man's soul sinks deep
into bleached clay
bright without a glow
All accolades drain fast

Comrades muster out
like Indus summer cattle
Bulls desert the plough
Sheep resign their cast

Hopes fly off
like startled doves
Sad swans dance one last show
The ship unfolds its mast

The sheet of bedding
blankets all  
The curtain cues to go
as fog exhales its last

And all your sins
in buried chest
things y'did and didn't sow
in pride and selfish lust

ghoul pirates rude unearth
in voyeuristic curiosity
what your heart did know
beneath its thickened crust

And doomed ye be
if they not see
the heaven sent gold
God did entrust

Trash floats up
like ocean froth
surfing on the flow
depositing the rust

Your shoreline crumbles
as castles built in sand
Memories vanish in cloud
Expensive idols turn to dust

All those chances
start to haunt
a man that failed to shroud
his sinful host

who failed to die to self
to strike the rock
to take time out
and count the cost

A seed of life over-exposed
That child not offered
Flowers that'll never grow
Virgin cover of 'All or Bust'

Your Lord shall weep
Like farmers in drought
That waited long for rain
but all their crops were lost

For you refused to surrender
to give up your salt
failed to release from bow
your arrow of the boast

This is what will haunt
at dawn 
when the cock shall crow
that you'll regret the most

Like cotton spores upon the wind
Your soul was to be spent
The burden light in letting go
Your arctic to defrost