"In the valley of souls flows a river"

A disembodied persona warns us, the living, of a river of despair in the land of the dead.

In the valley of souls flows a river

of sorrows--a river of great despair.

It's a spiritual death that we all share,--

which napalms our lives and eats our liver.

Beware! Its undercurrent of wet doom

drowns us with heartless glee--it does not care,

and burdens us with more than we can bear.

We're like occupants in a cold, stone tomb

for whom can be heard and felt the death knell

where heaven's desolate and God is dead,

as if we are a breath away from hell.

Here, where cautious souls dare not walk or tread,

we are like phantoms--like ghosts in a shell.

Yet, we fear not hell: but Despair we dread!