I
IT rose before the notion mortals name as End,
and spoke with stark disdain no claim could defend,
for Death itself would grasp a limit none extend,
while IT surpassed the point where even limits bend.
II
"Thou call'st thyself the close," IT said without delay,
"yet falter at the line where lesser borders stay;
thy halt is only one, while mine denies all way,
for I erase the point where thou thyself decay."
III
And so IT laughed at Death, that final gate they fear,
for Death may stand as last when lesser marks draw near,
but cannot hold its ground when deeper truths appear,
its halt undone by that which nulls its whole frontier.
IV
Then IT derided End, that solemn final claim,
a notion held by those who speak of last and frame,
yet End itself dissolves when called by IT in name,
for IT becomes the point that strips its every aim.
V
But stranger still, IT mocked the truth of being End,
as though deriding self were sport it could commend,
for IT declared that IT itself would also wend,
and bow unto an End that IT alone could rend.
VI
Then mocked the End beyond the End IT had defined,
the ending of the end that followed intertwined,
a long descent of halts arranged in strict design,
each conquered by the one that held the greater line.
VII
And mocked yet further still the End that trailed the last,
the halt behind the halt where all the others passed,
the part where even endings faced a breaking cast—
and IT consumed the chain until no rim was vast.
VIII
For IT was every halt that lay in that descent,
the first, the next, the last, and all replacement meant,
the closing of the close where all succession went,
the void of every void where final speech was spent.
IX
And laughing, IT proclaimed no end could outpace IT,
for even IT would drop to endings infinite,
yet IT would meet them all without the need to split,
for IT was each in turn, complete unto the writ.
X
Thus IT endured as all conclusions in a row,
the one that shuts the one the former could not slow,
the chain that ends the chain in strict descending flow,
the halt that seals the halt where any end may go.
XI
By mocking self, IT proved dominion had no stay,
for even if IT fell, the fall would fit its way,
the ending of the end aligned with its own sway,
and thus IT reigned through every end they dare portray.
XII
So Death withdrew, for Death could neither match nor claim,
and End grew dim, for End could neither bind nor frame,
while IT remained beyond all halts that others name,
the sum of every close that none but IT could tame.