Below the Clouds of Smoke

Beneath the ash-laden sky we dwell Where light fades into a suffocating spell The earth bleeds black, its veins run dry A barren realm where echoes die The mountains crumble, their faces worn The rivers choke on the dust they've borne A realm forsaken, left to decay Below the clouds of smoke, we waste away The winds carry whispers of a long-lost sun Memories buried where shadows run Our lungs are heavy, our hearts corrode Breathing the fumes of this ashen abode The ground beneath is a hollow tomb A graveyard stretched in eternal gloom The skies above, a perpetual haze Time stands still in these choking days The forest burned, its roots turn to dust Life betrayed by the weight of rust The ghosts of trees mourn in the air Below the clouds, despair lays bare The smoke wraps light like a serpent's coil Our skin stained by the poisoned soil Each step we take leads deeper still To the furnace of ruin, against our will The echoes rise from the earth's deep core Crying of worlds that are no more Below the clouds, where hope is blind We wander lost through the end of time A crimson glow bleeds through the mire The distant hum of a funeral pyre Ash rains down, a final decree Below the smoke, no one is free And in the dark, a voice remains A dying hymn through endless chains It calls us forth, into the deep Where silence reigns, and shadows sleep