Up rising from the Eastern sky Dawn's rose-tipped fingers wave goodbye While in the Western Hemisphere Her joyful golden locks appear To usher in the morning's cheer Before the rising sun. Awakening as from a dream Or nightmare, barren, cold and mean The smell of death hung in my nose As there, devoid of all repose I lay upon my bed. As worn-out rope all tied in knots Frays and rubs and wears and rots In twisted chords of tangled thoughts I struggled to awake. But look!  A figure in my mind, For whom I sought, but could not find An Otherworldly melody A deathless, dying memory A living, breathing entity Now stood before my eyes. She looked upon some distant shore Where once she stood in days of yore And yet some anchor held her sight In this mean world of bruise and blight And so transfixed a ray of light Into my aching frame. Not wanting sleep nor to arise Yet drinking deeply from her eyes (As dark as her black locks of hair) I saw deep grief and mourning there And then she spoke to me. "We walked together, you and I, Along the shores of Shangri Lai When all the earth was fresh and young We spoke a long-forgotten tongue And knew as we were known. "But the Monster of the Sea Forgetfulness, Depravity And all the Woes of Mortal man Grasped you by your mortal hand... I could not hold you back! "They dragged you into these cold depths They slew you with a thousand deaths And tore you from my aching breast O my Beloved One! "But still we meet between the Times Converse in riddles and in rhymes Between this life and that to come Where we shall walk again as one Before the Risen Son."