To Climb

So it's time
A place that's vaguely familiar
As if I've visited every night before
But never dared to knock upon the door
But it feels...
Right
I think it's right
A marbled white staircase
Bathed in divine light calls to me
But I'm terrified
Fear grips my heart
I grip the rail
My body quakes
But these journeyed feet don't fail
And I start to climb
As a stumbling child's first steps toward what awaits
Unsteady, but determined
That which fought so hard to beat now flutters fast and free
In tandem with random intangible swells, ethereal
They pierce then dissipate
Grappling with my shame
A fool to be so vain
Lucidity envelopes me so clear to see
A life steeped in sin and filth,
Disdain
A foul heart and a wretched soul
Depraved
But it's too late
For the Kingdom knows my name

The Book of Life won't erase my name
Will the loss be more than what she can take?
No
A robust resolve that even death can't shake
Tenacity to challenge pure adversity in the battlefield
The only one to make him bow
You defy your vice
Despite the guise
Define the lines provide
Deprived with light decline
What you don't deserve

What if my tales lie unworthy for them to tell?
Lost to those who roam the archives of stone
What no eye has seen, ear heard, nor heart of man
Has ever imagined
The Kingdom knows my name
The Book of Life won't erase
For here we have no lasting cities
But we seek what is yet to come
Plucked from painted dreams cascading from slumbering trees
Before they reach the grave

To fall
Is not
To fail
Rise again
To you
I've entrusted
All my weakness
Where I struggled
To discover
What it takes to be a man
You carved a foundation upon which to stand
In the palm of the mountain
I watched you grow
And I can finally rest knowing
I'm half the man you are

What no eye has seen, ear heard, nor heart of man
Has ever imagined
The Kingdom knows my name
The Book of Life won't erase
For here we have no lasting cities
But we seek what is yet to come
At last before me the majesty of gleaming glorious golden gates

And that was where I met him
A man I bore no likeness to, despite being my reflection
Upon the meeting of our eyes dawned the pit of comprehension
The crushing weight of seven decades bellows,
"UNDESERVING!"
The shackles of a coward's heart drag me
One
Step
Back
He said,
"From the brush of blood-soaked flora that whispered when you passed,
'Death to the intruder,' pervading panic clawing deep into your chest
To blurs of blue and red around the scarlet-star bespeckled path
The telling trail leading to her steel-embedded breast...
Remember every step."
He held out his hand,

"So it's time."