Akin

Torn asunder, perhaps you now know-
Pushed deep under- you'll always go
On your goal's path, to what you see...
...At path's ending, through pain all fiery...
What you're born to be.

Pushed down farther, taught to forget
All the struggles you've fought through and met,
Heartaches by which you relearned to cry,
Each one that helped you wonder why
You never failed to try.

A touch, a brush upon your soul's skin
While Darkness tells the tale of You Can't Win.
Yet that same touch, as light as a feather
Somehow pulls you back together
To face harshest weather.

Dark pushes hard. You push back,
Ignoring thoughts of what you might lack,
Knowing somehow that inside of you
Lies eternal strength getting you through.
Pushing is what you'll do.

But just when you think, This victory's mine,
A second storm strikes you harder from behind,
All strength gained thrown to the wind,
Now this storm, seeming just beginning,
Has you, to the ground, pinned.

No, you think, gritting your teeth,
You won't get the best of me.
Knock me down, make me ache.
All my Me away from me take.
But upon this battle my spirit I stake.

The dark's fury, at your vow, doubles.
Attacking your warrior's armor-like bubble
While another warrior, fighting just like you,
Is trying, tenacious, to push his way through
His own storms, to you.

A moment more, now you are face to face
You bear bow and arrow; he, a mace.
So very different. So much the same.
Layers of wild and war; skin calm, and tame,
Bearing scars of shame.

He gives you a nod, grinning a feral grin,
A wildness creeping out; you feel it begin.
A joy so powerful, like the sun's own light
Courses through you. Weakness now might,
Now for the real fight.

Those same scars now make you kin.
Against the same fury, the two of you begin.
Horrors of this war have made you more wise.
Phantoms of storm, you now realize,
Created to make me Prize.

You and your fellow warrior fight for an age-
Prime fodder for any bard's page.
Pretense and show only long ago,
Forever may this conflict flow
Yes, you smile. I know.

beatingheart2