The Bridal in Death Eternal (Bride Triptych III)

[Intro – Sparse, low drone, dissonant riffs] [Verse] The third we met beneath a vaulted gloom, Where osseous heaps in dumb devotion lay; No more I yearn’d for hearth, nor light, nor bloom, But yielded all unto Her stern array. “No more in twain,” She spake with lipless breath, And clasp’d my quivering essence in Her hand; Thus fled my pulse, releas’d from mortal pain, And pass’d with Her unto that silent land. She took me whole — the sinew, marrow, lust, My beating heart ground down to honest dust; For I was Hers, and Hers was I alone, Enthron’d where deathless stillness reigns evermore. Thus endeth breath — yet thus I e’er abide, The wedded thrall fast bound at Death’s cold side. [Chorus] O Death, thou pale and dread eternal queen, I quaff’d thy chill as sacramental wine; Though yet I mov’d where living men are seen, My soul was seal’d — no more was wholly mine. [Outro] O skeletal Queen, thou reaperess divine, In thee I dwell — my endless bliss is thine. Now lie we twined in Death Eternal’s bower, Where ebon roses weep their sable dew forever.