The crackling phonograph
Exudes of fondness passed
As an old soul reclines
Armed with a distant scowl

He cartwheels back
Enthralled by his boyhood journeys
Gathering momentum
Barreling further and further
Into his gilded reveries

Until the present
Was savagely ground to a pulp
Useless and compromised
Conquered by the surge of long ago

Reclined
As the cool melodies
Drift from the twirling record

A lone maiden passionately croons  
With her mournful companion
Strummed with caution and care

She too reminisces
Of a bygone and treasured age
Inching alone
To her frigid depths
Of despair and boundless sobbing  

The old soul slouches
Overrun with emotion
Hopelessly drunk
As his mind spins with sorrow

He is cursed to recall
A summer of splintering paths
Carted off so young
To an abyss of slaughter and peril

He recalls
The burden of mayhem
The immortal blaze
That bars him from rest

As the song diminishes
And reminiscing calms
As the old soul tumbles forth
Eternally silent
To be troubled no more