Through the air and climbing

A mist-bound projectile

Hurtling, defying the atmosphere

Pollution in raindrops, brightening

Traversing ever upward

On this endless marked gaze

The view from the bottom, the tower spire

Stretching

Toward the golden vault

We look and see

The silver beauty

The stone engravings

Blemished with moss, attached and thickening

Over the flagstones, into space

Wide-eyed and shaking

Marching vertically with death, fatigue

The lecherous cling to our backs

We die when dreaming of ambition

It hurts us to think of our mission

The golden stones

Taken up

Cast down

We've fallen down, bent double

At the limit of our minds

The dust covers our steps again

Through the air and back to earth again

These lies they told

Ringing within our heads again

Like the broken bells of winter