Axes++

See there?
that glint on the horizon, that piercing ray of light coming --
see that, that is the axe of the headsman
I forged that axe, and now, it grows hungry
Yet I am as the leaf in the October wind in this,
as orange and semi-fragile thing as, --
it matters, ultimately not, for what is the leaf if not sustenance for the coming worm?
Nothing; if not that, and thus, I dance up these gallows towards the block;
not oblvivious,
not unawares by any means, no;
but rather full on the notion that I've been here before, that --
that this likely is nothing near my final stride up these gallows, and yet ...
the notion that this instance may be the death of it all, that I might find the permanence of stone,
the rot of brown decay, that --
that is what provides this current I dance towards the gallows on