Ashes of The Abyss

By Divyanka Shaw

I can smell the rot,

Decomposed, broken, black.

I can see the dead end, 

Feel fire fumes fill my lungs.

Is it burning me,  

Or is the blaze within?

The light is no longer visible.

My bones protrude out of my skin,

The embers licking at my soul. 

The charred ashes of my existence spread around me. 

Am I here? Or am I a ghost?

I reach out, but my hands dissolve,  

Like smoke into the void. 

What remains?

When the flame devours,

When the embers lose their glow?

I look around, but there’s nothing.

No pulse, no warmth, no tether to hold.  

Perhaps I’ve always been drifting here,

but I don’t want to.

The cold nips at my skin,

As there’s no fire.

I stand on what I once knew,

I gaze at them while I shiver, 

They are fading in the face of my demons.

I gradually let it go, 

My tired body stripping my strength.

I give up, 

Let myself be carried away,

Whilst I witness a sign of life in the abyss, 

Slowly disintegrating into a black hole,

Until it shatters every bond within my soul.

By Divyanka Shaw