In flames, not fire, burns the pyre sat upon the shore
Of oceans great in measured hate, loss rends me to the core
How dark the lair of cold despair whence the heart now cries
Tears cast in loss spill on my cross, upon its frame this dies

Touched my brow I know not how beads of blood and sweat
Worlds of anger trace the danger killing what is wept
Soulless spirit cannot hear it deafened by silent noise
Lament the cry and wonder why true happiness destroys

Hope be not found in soured ground, the spirits of regret
Wherein I bide with selfish pride, sorrows to forget
Know not when the pain’s not been since cast in memory’s keep
And weep the mind that lost in kind of his eternal sleep

Flesh to ashes, emotion crashes, lend me once again
The heart of pure and wit endure, betray my own chagrin
Dashed be hope, to life I grope, reflections in the pool
Of memory mine on which I dine, a board of life too cruel

The specter comes to him undone and takes within the breath
That final hour atop the tower, a staircase up to death
Clear vistas call and end it all in lamentable distress
As skeletal hands the hourglass sands magically caress

Adieu is bid in which love hid to brethren far and wide
Friend and foe that now must go on this his final tide
Wind and waves to resting graves erect upon the shore
Demand I must, turn not to dust, I surely must needs more

Stand on ground of hallowed sound ‘twixt two like you and I
Cold and bitter lost lives litter for all will surely die
To not allay in bleak dismay what clearly can’t be kept
A heart of gold, now life untold, to the stinging end I wept

Goodbye, my friend, to you I send all happiness and joy
Bled from my soul no longer whole like all the hoi polloi
Zeal and zest at life’s behest lost to those behind
To that we had, inherent glad, lost in time and mind

[in Derek’s memory]