His footprints scatter like autumn leaves,

Each step a desperate dance with gravity.

Words tangle in his throat—

A bird with broken wings,

Fighting the inevitable fall.

Cataracts cloud his gaze,

Like morning mist on dying dreams.

Shoulders, once proud mountains,

Now crumble under invisible weight.

Time's cruel architect has carved valleys

In what was once smooth skin.

He counts stars through smog-stained skies,

Each pinprick of light a memory

Of who he used to be.

Purpose has become poison,

Hope, a hollow echo.

Remember him?

The man who chased horizons,

Built castles in dawn's light,

Dared to dream in technicolor

When the world dealt in grays.

But ambition is a spider's web—

Diamonds in morning dew,

Until you're caught in silk-strong threads

That slice like piano wire.

While nature, that patient predator,

Watches with ancient eyes,

Savoring each morsel of madness,

Each drop of despair.

When she finally releases him—

A cat tired of its game—

He joins the ghost-parade

Of hollow-eyed dreamers,

Their shadows stretching longer

Than their broken bodies.

A cautionary tale

Written in bone and breath,

Of how the world unmakes a man

One heartbeat at a time.