before the lights go out for good before the flash consumes us whole a crack on the horizon grows and opens up its blinding jaws before the lights go out for good before the flash consumes us whole before we boil in its embrace I gaze across your freckled face and your sweat beads in every pore as our shadows flee across the floor and fire fills your frightened eyes as the groaning glow intensifies and your features shine in sharp relief your soul exposed in a moment brief your fears and your hopes and your memories the one I was always meant to see and only darkness evermore