by Rob Vitaro, 2010

I leap from the towering pillar to the unstable stack of stories,
      then slip yet again to the lowest plane, ever closer to that blazing light.
The pain of the fall, until recently unknown, is exquisite.

I gasp harder in this beautiful void,
   even more so than when I dwelt in that desolate and murky abode -
look how it is so high above me now!

I flip myself once more to the glorious glow – ah yes, there it is!  Such dazzling radiance! 

Slithering across the dusty splintery surface, I am stabbed by it.  And again.
No matter, just a little further.

For the roaring warmth calls to me.

So close, but I am tarrying too long... No!  Please, No!  That foggy darkness comes again!  Why must it hold me
back, suffocate my dream?!  Oh wicked cloud of shadow, do you truly dare once more to envelope me?  ME?!  No,
I will not be stopped.  Not this time.

The little bell jingles – good God, it is so clear, not stifled in the slightest!
   (What joyful sounds this world holds!)

But soft! Where lies your focus, you shriveling thing? Do you not remember that the bell tolls when HE has
returned, that Giant Warden of our soul?

Yes, the earth shakes, I feel it now (I FEEL!).  He is coming.  Yet still the orange glow burns near, I can almost taste
its delicious smoky succulence.  Sweet heavenly flames, I am nearly in your arms!

But oh my, what new devilry is this?  The hands!  THE HANDS!  The Warden grips me tightly, choking from me what
little life I have left as I watch the magnificent embers painfully fade away.  I resolve that this is the end, the
darkness will take me away forever now…

SPLASH!
GASP!

So, still I live?  Rejoice, you ungrateful thing! Fate has allowed you another chance to claim your freedom!

So I reluctantly gulp at the sludge that fills my home.
Humph, “home.”  For now, maybe.

I watch through my distorted glass cage as He sits before the white and black keys.  Für Elise again?  How tiresome.
Still, what would it sound like outside the bowl, I wonder?

I will likely never know.  When he departs, I will attempt flight once more.

For the roaring warmth calls to me.