Have you ever done business in deep waters
Put scales and balances with hades
Have you ever danced toe to toe with the grim reaper
Have you won death in his own lair…

Hmmm… Everyone would love to try it…
But death’s cold hand lurks in privy places
Who has beaten death in his accursed game
Meet Manuel, who was called The Negotiator

Once when the earth was young and blooming
The skies and waters sang with colours
A certain mishappening did happen
Then we came under this cruel master

Death played us in the bones
We were bonded because we were bound
His never ending game with the sarcastic circles
Who could win a game that ended with death

Then Manuel came along with succinct promises
Saying he would win death without sweat
Death’s game ends in death we said
All hades scoffed and laughed in derision

And it all began with all earnestness
So did the betrayals and the denials
All part of death’s own game
Death claimed a quick victory in real time

But when the claims of justice sat to decide
Manuel was declared the winner of death’s game
Death was livid but had to accept defeat
And we all wondered in wonder….

We never knew …

In his dying was the key to death’s death
For he was not bonded neither bound with death
And in death’s greediness over a life that was not his
A victory was secured that was not ours

Not only did Manuel beat death in his own game
He freed everyone who was bonded and bound with death
Negotiating also with the claims of justice
That we would forever be free because we believed this story.