The Steps to Nowhere

The Steps to Nowhere

The steps were old, the stones were cold,

They led to places never told.

No house above, no door below,

Just endless stairs where shadows go.

I climbed them once at dead of night,

Beneath a moon that gave no light.

And every step beneath my feet,

I heard a heart forget to beat.

A woman stood upon the stair,

With hollow eyes and silver hair.

She whispered softly, "Don't look down,

The dead are sleeping underground."

But something moved beneath the stone,

A voice that sounded like my own.

It called my name, then called once more,

From somewhere underneath the floor.

I counted steps, one, two, then three,

But something else was counting me.

And when I stopped to catch my breath,

I heard the gentle feet of death.

The sky grew black, the moon turned red,

I saw the faces of the dead.

They watched me climb, they watched me fall,

But none of them had eyes at all.

I tried to turn, I tried to flee,

But all the steps moved back with me.

The bottom vanished in the night,

The top was swallowed out of sight.

A little child began to cry,

Upon the steps that touched the sky.

I reached to take her tiny hand,

But touched the dust of buried land.

And then I knew what lay ahead,

These were the stairs beneath the dead.

No heaven waited at the top,

No place to rest, no place to stop.

So if you find those steps one day,

Where mist and darkness never stray,

Don't climb them, leave them standing there,

For I am still upon that stair.