"Once upon a midnight dreary..."

A shadow falls over the wasteland
The shadow of a raven,
A raven fashioned from pure crystal,
An impossible creature, fragile, brittle

The landscape is dead, barren, lifeless
He has flown forever, never knowing rest
Always on the move, no place to call home

The sun rises, bright but deadly
And, taken with the sight,
He flies closer, ever closer,
Until...

...like Icarus, he flies too near,
And is burned, broken
Screaming and burning,
He crashes to the ground
To shatter against the barren rock.

Where once a Raven flew,
Lies only crystal shards and blood.

Come evening,
The Raven is born once again,
Only to die again the next morning.
And leaving as the only legacy of countless deaths:

A single rose, black as the midnight sky,
Alone in a barren wilderness