The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Damp forest floor, can’t remember how I came to be here

Dark, yonder light, milky dim, corpse-green and drawing me in

To its source, a broken house, scarred, filled with sad memories

By the porchlight there stands a man, old, new.

I know his face.

Tread these paths with care, he said, they call to you to follow

Through this dark I bear the means to guide you from this hollow

A letter from the past

A promise to myself

The chance for immortality.

A sorcerer's demise

The blank stare in his eyes

Death's the last banality.

His mind flew through the brews he made

I listened to the news he gave.

Revealed to me with quickened breath

A secret – human life unbowed by death!

I wanted this chance to cheat time

I held the knife – his lifeblood flowed like wine.

A voice screamed from within my breast to cease

But from afar I bound myself to lasting sleep.

Who can lead us from the paths we tread but ought not follow?

Guide, protect us from the poisoned feasts we blindly swallow?

A letter runs ahead

I write the symbols blind

The chance for immortality.

A sorcerer’s demise

The blank stare in my eyes

I am my own insanity.

Split in two - my soul departs, I view the lifeless canker’s body

Coursing through my flesh I venerate my bloody odyssey

Damp, wooden floor, I awake

From my nightmares everyday.

Stained remorse, filled with ache

Countless years away.

Look to me now, I have aged

Stripped of pride and stripped of power

So with shame I turn the page

Through these graceless hours.

Dan Jones