The Last Bell ... The First of Many

It is a poetical, fable-like tale set in the near future, the story centering around an aged poet, Lazarus, a sub-dweller suffering out the remnant of a miserable mortality in a dictatorial society wherein God, family, and fundamental freedoms are outlawed by the State. A cageling in dire contest with his fears, with reason and madness, and a relentless conscience, crying out of his sorry solitude for God to grant him the courage to "write that poem", to ring that bell (declaring his opposition to the State) before time and age rob him of redemption. A poet as near to oblivion and eternal peace as pen is to paper, as his shackled mettle is to the ringing of a bell: the last bell...the first of many.