We walk without motion in the shivering shadow
and lean long blind hands for the sliver of light
which glows beyond reach to the shuffling feet which are bound
in granite grey footwear

There’s a dark fall of faces all smiling, all hollow
There’s a nagging feel of an endless empty night
There’s a ditch where the corpse lies face down and the body’s found
in granite grey footwear

We all of us lean to break the chains of the shadow
and screaming soundless stretch together for the light
and rattle chains from our brains which remain stifling, bound
in granite grey footwear

In granite grey footwear
confusion, ordered with care, smiling slyly turns us round
we live in conviction drawing life black and white
while fields once rich with reason grow old to lie fallow.

In granite grey footwear
we grow, sullen and seldom smiling, like graves from the ground
and slow we blinded grow dead still searching the light
although few learn the glow fewer ever follow

In granite grey footwear
we die searching a reason for having been around
and in death find the unity of day and night
as time shifts tides and turns us again    to meet the shadow

Life is death
death is life
we travel never ending

Time is space
Space is time
the tale is never ending

Jailor, bring me laughter
and kindly loosen my chains
I felt some light slant through the bars
and its warmth would ease my pains

Ian David Arlett

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