Simply lost are we. We sail valiantly towards the sunset’s iridescent colours and promise, our eyes glimmering with the pure flames burning within our souls. And yet, our ship burns, afloat on this dismal ocean of forlorn dreams, no land in sight – Slowly descending towards a saturnine end.

Fearful, unstoppable and immutable, the flames rise and surround us. The incandescent reds, yellows and oranges an inclement dance; reaching inside, grasping at our souls. Still, our ship sways its lonely serenade amid the dusky emptiness, slowly departing this realm of fire and pain.

Some concede the victory of this fire, surrendering their souls to the clutches of the malignant flames. They take a leap of deluded faith into the icy waters below – Leaving the others on the burning wreck to battle their own fires. Plunging beneath the gleaming surface, where reflective bubbles of oxygen rise, their lifeless bodies do not. And those that sink beneath the wash, eyes glazed over and flames forever extinguished, sink silently towards an anonymous destination - Falling away from those ethereal pillars of light; the last reminder of the now departed realm of strife. In this way they abscond to nothingness, unquestioning, unconscious shadows of their former selves. No darkness, no silence, nothing for eternity.

Those who remain know that the inevitable approaches, becoming weaker and more frail with each second that passes. We know that this struggle against the flames, which threaten to taint and steal our souls, is in vain – Soon, we too will be lost to the calm waves. Determination without faith, ardour in our eyes – A passion to survive. The faith we have is false, nothing but a hopeless infatuation with our dreams. Oh! How we desire to be on the outside, never wondering, always looking in and not on the inside, ever questioning, ever gazing outwards for an ineffable answer. How we wish that the white fires within us could never be extinguished and the shell around us lost to the infinite depths.

The only reward for this valorous struggle is further strife. Yet we continue, knowing that sensation; pain, is far greater than non-existence. Our resistance may be forgotten, but our honour will live on in the souls of others on this doomed vessel. We can blame no one for this fate, for we did not chose to travel the sinking ship – It chose us.

Still, there is hope without reason as the ice-cold waters grab our feet. We trudge onward towards the sunset’s promise like moths about a candle – Embittered in life and embittered in death as the chill wraps around our spines - a transparent frozen snake, paralysing our movements. As the water rises we bleed our memories in the tears we shed, shimmering with purity for a moment before fusing with the barren ocean panorama below. Finally, the flames have dispersed and the path before us is clear, yet now we are too frail to walk it.

Even after fighting our own individual fires for so long, the ocean, unbeatable, claims us. This irony, that it is not the flames, but the ocean which should consume us is inconsolable. The water clutches our hearts as it slowly climbs our bodies, washing away love like dirty seaweed on a beach: No purity, no crystal is spared as our affections and passions dissolve into nihility.

Finally, our souls leak into the void and their white fires, still untainted, are extinguished. The empty eyes which once beheld this glorious world of blazing fire, passionate yet painful, beautiful yet tainted, sink, glazed over into the vastness of oblivion. Caught in the currents, lifeless dolls, we cannot bear witness to the existence of this dark infinity. We become shadows of reality.

Children of this burning vessel,

Do not resist the call of death

or with your fires, wrestle,

For other than yourself.

Children of this glorious world,

Do not fear the inevitable

clutches of oblivion unfurled,

For nihility is all but nirvana.

Children of this ineffable whole,

Alwayssail towards the sunset

driven by your heart and soul,

Welcome it’s song of light and colour.

Always sail towards the sunset, towards its promise of beauty and wonder, for without it, simply lost are we.

By James Womack, 12/4/02