With a painful lurch the stranger came into the room,

And cast his eyes about into the darkness and the gloom.

His road was long and weary,

His lifetime nearly spent,

His visage, dark and dreary,

His garments were unkempt.

Yet his voice was worst of all, bringing portents of their doom.

 

“You who stand before me, who seek to hide your face,

Who know that, by your actions, you’ve cursed the human race.

Your sins I place before you,

Your travesties laid bare,

The seeds you’ve sown are now due,

So listen as I share.”

And thus, the stranger showed them all the lives they’d brought to waste.

 

“Here, I show the child, the sorrow within his home,

See the pain upon his face as he cowers there, alone.

Here, his mother’s disregard, 

Here, his father’s drink,

Here, his sister’s broken heart,

Here, on sanity’s brink.”

And then the stranger brought them to the child once he’d grown.

 

“Now you see this boy, his future has been damned,

Now you see the fruit of your blight upon the land.

Watch, his friend’s desertion,

Watch, his love lies fallow,

Watch, his mind’s coercion,

Watch, his soul does battle.”

And next the stranger took them to the child, now a man.

 

“Witness, once again my friends, this child without a life,

Bear witness to the way he perpetuates your strife.

Look, his son is troubled,

Look, his bottle’s drained,

Look, his sins have doubled,

Look, his soul is strained.”

At last, the stranger brought them back into the night.

 

“The sins that you committed stayed with him till the end,

The crimes which you’ve permitted left him without a friend.

He died, without a happiness,

He died, without a hope,

He died, so full of loneliness,

He died, he couldn’t cope.”

 Now the stranger paused, took a breath, and spoke again.

 

“Now you’ve seen your deadly shame, the curse that you have cast,

Now you’ve seen the way it slays, but do you know, at last.

Do you see the way it’s burning?

Do you see the way it kills?

Do you see the world is turning?

Do you think that time stands still?”

With these words the stranger left them, and the moment, it had passed.