“...I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
And I fear no evil because I’m blind
and I walk beside the still waters and they restore my soul
But I know when I die my soul is damned”
And I fear no evil because I’m blind
and I walk beside the still waters and they restore my soul
But I know when I die my soul is damned”
Through the Valley
Shawn James
Shawn James
I ran with the desperation of a possessed.
Directionless, aimless.
I ran until my humanity was stripped away, reduced to the most primal state of despair.
I ran until I collapsed to the ground, only to rise and run a little farther.
Directionless, aimless.
I ran until my humanity was stripped away, reduced to the most primal state of despair.
I ran until I collapsed to the ground, only to rise and run a little farther.
I would run until I lost my strength, my mind, and my life, for I preferred death over continuing to wander like a condemned soul through that Eternity, through that “nevermore”, whose ghostly meaning had already begun to slowly, schizoidally devour the tattered edges of my sanity.
II
I watched in disbelief as, upon the sordid and numbed horizon, a mysterious structure began to take shape.
It must have been colossal, for even at a distance, its imposing presence could be perceived.
It must have been colossal, for even at a distance, its imposing presence could be perceived.
Yet before me stretched a dark and fathomless Nothingness, a stormy, devouring sea, a violent Styx.
Fate has the peculiar nature of being both mysterious and inevitable.
Now I find myself at the threshold where I can grasp its subtle language:
I must reach to the Other Side.
Now I find myself at the threshold where I can grasp its subtle language:
I must reach to the Other Side.
But where is Phlegyas and his boat?
Is my path so impious, my existence so profane,
that the only way in
is to cross through the jaws of this dreadful force?
Is my path so impious, my existence so profane,
that the only way in
is to cross through the jaws of this dreadful force?
