From rablib@pipeline.com Tue Jan 28 22:26:45 1997
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 16:56:03 -0800
From: Howard Hoffman <rablib@pipeline.com>
Subject: Re:Poems

This is a poem I wrote awhile ago about the Babylon 5 episode
"Z'ha'dum". I would really welcome any comments you have.

                  ---Tirtzah Hoffman


                         The Shadow in the Doorway

Their victory is sure, but short 
They know it will not last 
When at the knocking of the door
Come shadows of the past

>From out of distant memories
Too painful to recall
Her entrance shatters hope
As though a crystal ball

It pains him all too deeply 
To see her standing there 
With her old familiar face
And long, soft auburn hair

As his new love flees the room 
He calls for her to stay
Knowing he has now become
The Shadows' hunted prey

She seems to him, so familiar,
Like the recalling of a dream
But he knows that she is changed,
No longer what she seems

In times that were long past 
She had been his love, his life 
And they had shared their time together 
As loving man and wife

But in fire he had lost her
And in work tried to forget
The pain that still was with him
And haunted him even yet

And just as he was once more learning 
To open up his heart 
She returned to beckon him 
And tear his soul apart

For now a stranger stands before him
With her angelic face
And with the truth she draws him
To that dreaded place

To a barren planet
Where angels fear to tread
Where Shadows hold dominion
And the living are the dead

On Z'Ha'Dum they tell him
Of all he needs to know
While his true love recieves his message 
Telling why he had to go

He tells her that he loves her
But could not risk the chance
That by not going
He would cause the future he had glanced

He knows that it will be a trap
Still he has to try
But he will take them with him 
For he was told that he would die

>From behind, they try to come 
And catch him unaware
But he had readied for attack
Before coming to their lair

He makes a break for freedom
But there is no place to hide 
He sends a call to the heavens 
And an answer is supplied

For up above a missile arms 
And begins it's swift descent
Like an avenging angel 
Calling sinners to repent

Then once more she is before him
Her siren song a plea
Demanding that he join them
As he has no place to flee

He looks upon the ruins
Of the one whom he had loved
Knowing his hope was gone 
And death approached above

Then in his mind he hears the voice 
Of a friend whom he'd thought lost
Offering a chance at hope
Through all that this had cost

Despite the urgent mind-calls
He takes one final glance
Into the eyes of his dead wife
In which, no the Shadows dance

With sad knowledge of his loss
He takes one final breath,
Not daring to let hope go 
He plunges to his death

And from the starry heavens 
The White Star doth descend 
And like the fiery Phoenix
Plunges to it's end 

Taking the Shadows with it
In it's fiery demise 
Throwing the Shadows into chaos 
As the damage they surmise

On the station his death is felt
By those who knew him best
Though all had known th risks
When taking up their quest

One mystery remains mow
For those, who, against the darkeness strive
Through all that has occurred 
Is he still alive?