Pluto Speaks

"I shall not lead you through sunlit uplands,
To open moors
Where curlews bubble and lapwings tumble.
I shall not take you to wooded valleys
With waterfalls of pennywort and fern.

But I will lead you through the leaden hills
By deserted tunnels and blackened shafts
With only plummeting drops for company
And the candles of Apixaban and Clopidogrel
To light your way.

You will not breathe clean air:
I have given you darkness.

You will not tread fresh turf:
I have brought you to rock and clinker.

Did you hope to see for miles?
Your landscape is shrunken to a shrouded glimmer."

I count my steps to the point of no return:
The blackness is swallowing my heart whole.

Words by Tim Holt-Wilson
Image by ArtGirl