It's been forever, though, since last we kissed

For years we fooled ourselves. Now we can tell

How everyone our age heads for the brink

Where they are drawn into the unplumbed well,

Not to be seen again. How sad, to think

People we once loved will be with us there

And we not touch them, for it is nowhere.

Never to taste again her pretty mouth!

It's been forever, though, since last we kissed.

Shadows evaporate as they go south,

Torn, by whatever longings still persist,

Into a tattered wisp, a streak of air,

And then not even that. They get nowhere.

But once inside, you will have no regrets. 

You go where no one will remember you.

You go below the sun when the sun sets,

And there is nobody you ever knew

Still visible, nor even the most rare

Hint of a face to humanise nowhere.

Are you to welcome this? It welcomes you.
The only blessing of the void to come
Is that you can relax. Nothing to do,
No cruel dreams of subtracting from your sum
Of follies. About those, at last, you care:
But soon you need not, as you go nowhere.

[Clive James {1939- }, 'Event Horizon', from Sentenced to Life]