The Only Power ~ November Challenge Entry
Written to accompany this fantastic pic by Foo~Dog
Please see the Full Size Picture at Foo~Dog's DA Site
(Double click on her pic to see his face. It's amazing.)
The Only Power
I freeze.
Her stillness paralyzes me,
breath no longer
brushing my cheek,
blood no longer
flowing warm beneath my touch.
Heavy and dark,
an immutable ache leaches into me -
a poison - yearning and boiling my
need to howl
out a challenge,
an unanswered call to powers I despise
for remaining hidden,
refusing to face my fury.
Death laughs.
This death is a stranger, one that does not
keep the comfortable distance,
but presses close,
weighting the air from my lungs.
Our enduring covenant abandoned,
I feel the betrayer’s blade slip skillfully
around armor and bone,
slicing a path for black echoes
bellowing into the dark space
carved into my heart.
Mocking and bitter, death beckons me
to that place
where pain is irrelevant,
where I could look down at her body
and see nothing
but a casualty of chance.
I am tempted,
the way familiar.
She cries.
One step forward
to the promise of relief
and a wall of anguish rises before me -
crumbling into my soul as I smash at it,
desperate to move beyond.
I become trapped in a swelling
maelstrom of self-loathing,
swirling the remnants of my pride into
her sorrowful wails,
crying out her torment that I would
forget her so easily.
Frozen again, the tempest calms and
our sadness falls
around me -
through me -
shredding me until I, too,
have become lost.
I hurt.
My vain attempts at self-protection
wound us both -
like a slap at her soul.
A dishonor.
Stunned, I allow myself to be
swept into the void.
I am powerless to protect us -
helpless to give life again.
I am useless.
My pain is the only power left to me.
Living with me now,
it breathes on my cheek -
flows in the beat of my heart.
For her memory -
I will feel it.
For her honor -
I will own it.
Thanks for all the help from my lj friends for concrit! For those who are interested, I recorded this on my own journal in a voice post.