I am the guardian of memories

I am the gatekeeper to what has been

I am the captorThe sentinel of moments

Of true spontaneity

In this cesspool of industrially fabricated frames

For life′s ever fleeting sincerity

Must be preserved in all of its colors

My path on this world has never wavered until now

My role in this chaotic theatre of life has always been so clear to me

But I'm struggling to accept this ending

What′s the point of a show if in the end

There is no audience actors or theatre

Nothing and no one to prove it ever existed at all

I wish I understood it more

I wish I could make sense of it all

I suppose the only thing I truly know

Is that when The Negative gets here

It will change everything

I've caught myself daydreaming about it a lot lately

What will this new world look like

Will the stars still twinkle in the night sky

Will the same colorful vibrancy still reflect in the light

Will humanity even exist in this new macrocosm

Or will we be expunged with the rest of it

I'd like to imagine it will be more like a pentimento

A new universe sprawled over the canvas of what once was

Leaving clues just under the surface

The tiniest shred of evidence of what existed before

But it′s impossible to stay confident in that idea

When my expectations are everything and nothing all at once

All I know is that whatever it is that′s going to happen

It's going to be soon

And it will happen in the blink of an eye

I took the last photo I will ever take the other day

It was a beautiful day and I was walking through the park during the golden hour

I noticed this feeble old man and behind him dragged this old tattered dog leash

It was vacant

There was no dog

Yet his hand held onto this leash with such conviction

It infuriated me

The pointlessness of it

I snapped a picture and then without even thinking

I threw my camera smashing it into pieces on the ground

I′ve always had a gift for distinguishing moments of truth

And I've always known my purpose was to capture and preserve those moments

So they can be remembered

But what is the point

What is the point of preserving these moments

What was the point of that fucking dog leash

I recognized the same undeniable truth I saw in the negative

That I′ve seen in all of the pictures I've ever captured

Since then time has haunted me every second of every day

It lingers over my head like a dark cloud

Heavy with powerful devastation

Ready to storm down upon the unsuspecting arrogance below

I KNOW The Negative is real

I KNOW it′s coming fast

And I KNOW it is coming soon

EVERYTHING will be gone

Everything will be gone

Nobody is ever going to hear this

I don't even know why I'm recor