Carapace and Claw

What’s left behind
On this near side of eternity
Shell of existence
Shadow legacy

Husk of memories kept alive
By those who’d known the shell
But never the true nature
Of what it protected

Too the trails
Footfalls left in the sand
Evidence of passing presence
Echoes oft anonymous

No matter all this
Tides soon enough erase
While echoes fade
To silence

So cling to hope
For something beyond
The far side of death
Or suffer the fear of oblivion