Death Ends Here (So Life Can Begin) Poem by Jesse Ellsbury

I refuse to let this nightmare win,
I’ve done and am doing all I can,
death ends here so life can begin.

Some people phrase it in terms of sin,
but I already knew I was damned.
I refuse to let this nightmare win.

The nervousness burrows deep in my skin
like an insect in an overturned pan.
Death ends here so life can begin.

I’m a piece of steel in a building of tin,
like the razor I clasp in my hand.
I refuse to let this nightmare win,

The dead claws of fate are reaching in,
while I languish wounded in no-man’s-land.
Death ends here so life can begin.

Dread madhouse dreams make my head spin,
I will not stoop to a drowning command.
I shall burst forth from this nightmare’s din,
death ends here so life can begin.