...ow

He knew it was almost over, the last of it was so close. The quiet that usually welcomes in the final crescendo was beginning.

The lit streets where once bright lanterns had begun to dim were like omens to his end. Prophecies to a demise he spent a lifetime trying to avoid but managed to walk headlong into it.

He walked these same conduits as long as he could remember. Surges of emotion overtook him.

These streets he once knew well betrayed him now

these pathways of his youth were like his memories dim in the dusk light.

He found his way by the hauntingly familiar rough touch of the sidewalk and the brick.

He had made it to the destination that had awaited him for years now. Remembering that even in his early years this would be his grave. That he would enter into it with no one around.

He was lost now.

No one to care
No one to bring solace or even despair
No accompaniment to the explosions in the sky

So long lonesome
Were the last words he heard.
…
Only to realize they were his own.