Furlough from Hell

How many tears are enough to shed
To mourn the wholesale waste of genius?

How many quick and painless deaths
To equal a lifetime wracked by torment?

How vast and great a fortune tossed away
To pay back a Titan chained for decades?

How great a choir of how many voices
To laud the respite from endless horrors?

Is a mere quietly-breathed sigh of relief enough
When the sword of Damocles dangles still above?

-- January 14^th, 2005, Copyright © 2005