The Ebbing Tide of Life

I feel it, the cold bite of steel,
As it parts the fabric of my coat,
Slicing through the warmth of my flesh.
A sharp gasp escapes my lips,
Not quite a scream,
more a whisper of surprise.
The world tilts,
a dizzying swirl of cobblestone and fog,
As I stagger against the unforgiving wall of an alley I thought I knew.

The pain is a bloom,
a red flower unfurling,
In the pit of my stomach,
its petals spreading wide and fast.
I press my hand against the wound,
A futile attempt to hold life within me,
But it seeps through my fingers, warm and slick.
The metallic scent of my own blood fills the air,
A cruel reminder of my mortality.

I can hear my heart,
a drumbeat slowing down,
Each thump a countdown to an end I'm not ready to meet.
My breaths come in short, ragged pulls,
Like the strings of life are being plucked one by one,
Each note a discordant echo in the empty night.

The shadows around me grow longer,
Fingers of darkness reaching out to claim what's left of my light.
I think of faces, of laughter, of love,
All the things that seemed so important just moments ago,
Now distant memories fading into the black.

There's a coldness setting in,
not just in the wound, but all over,
A chill that no sun can warm.
I'm slipping, falling,
each moment a step further away from the world of the living.
I want to shout, to fight,
to claw my way back to life,
But the strength isn't there.

So this is it, the final chapter,
Written in blood on a dirty alley floor.
The life ebbs out of me,
a tide retreating from the shore,
Leaving behind nothing but an empty shell.
And in these last fleeting seconds,
I find a strange peace,
a surrender to the inevitable.

As the darkness takes me,
I let go,
The last beat of my heart a gentle goodbye.