Character From Book

Kneeling, seeing in his mind, the first steps of a child, smiling.

A lover's first kiss. Sun beating down on hot sands. Mountain

Splendour. Empty eyes staring, to die on golden dunes, bowed.

Knife sharpened, vertigo swimming the senses, camera whirs.

Character from Book is great, speaking words each man hears

Differently from the next, commanding the hands

Of each man differently from his brother, or mother,

Manipulated by man's treachery to occupy another man's soul.

The end a decollation, sacred blood sinks down. Forever down

Until the life is nothing more than the possessions

Of those whose tears have been falling far away

And will fall still, until the only tears left are dry. Like sand.

And through all the horror, in the wings, forced to look,

The next life is offered up to Character from Book.