Ah, I haven't written poetry in a long time, and fanfiction poetry in even longer. I'd like to think that I've improved since then, but I don't know. I could be just as crappy as I was three years ago. But I feel fairly satisfied with this poem, and if it has a songlike cadence to it, that would be because I was listening to Hatsune Miku's Goddess of Spring on repeat while I wrote this. And I still hate that the only way to line break is to forcibly add it in. I just want my white spaces to stay!
Long ago before
They were the two priestesses who
Gave everything to save a world
That knew evil and despair
From the eight headed snake
Who desired to eat
The world and all of
Its darkness
Long ago they were
Two maidens who met at a spring
Rumored to be the home of
A goddess of song
Who sang to travelers
And called them back
Home to where they were meant
To be
Two maidens were called
To the spring
Back when they were no one besides
Themselves
At the spring, the shy girl
With hair just like the sunlight and
Eyes the color of twilight
Heard the song of a goddess
Who promised them hope
and peace
And love
And she believed it with her heart
Knowing that her words
Were true
The other maiden
pale and dark like
The changing moon
Heard a different song
One of pain and despair
Of loneliness too bitter to bear
And the cold comfort of sacrifice.
But also of love
And of the chance to begin again
Even after everything seemed to end
Even after the worst possible mistakes
Then they met
At the spring where the goddess sang
To them and they thought they understood
That the price for always being together was
To fight a battle that could never be won
A cycle that would repeat forever
Till the earth itself crumbled
To ash and the gods
Ceased to be
Without those who believed in them
But that lifetime after lifetime
They would meet again
And be together again
Never alone
Never apart
And they accepted it then
The price they thought they had to pay
The sacrifice they had to make
And the great snake could
Not withstand the power
Of two lovers chosen by the goddess
To play the hardest roles
In a divine game
Where no winners arose
Only loss
The two maidens fought bravely
Against the heads of the snake
Chosen from those who had lost their hope
Who had fallen to despair
Who ceased to believe there could be
Another world, another chance
But in the battle
The solar priestess was wounded
A cut that would not heal
A slow lingering death
The goddess sang to them again
Of sacrifice
Of necessity
Of giving up that which they cherished most
That the world would be reborn again
And a few hundred years could pass
Without the snake whispering despair
And peace could reign again
But only at the cost of sacrifice
Sacrifice is another word for suicide
The lunar priestess asked
The solar priestess, her dearest
to kill her
That she would not have to kill
Her beloved, her sunshine
But the solar priestess could not
Strike the blow herself
And she was too weakened by her mortal blow
So the lunar priestess did what she thought
She could not do
And slew her heart
And chose a world
That would be happy on the outside
But where despair lurked within
And lived a lifetime
Without her sunshine
Always dreaming of the day
When they could meet again
And she could tell her how sorry
She was for killing her
And that she wished they had never been separated
Always looking to the moon
For the mystical shrine
That held her beloved
And the goddess could not tell her that
The choice to be separated for each lifetime
Wasn't the only choice
Every time they were reborn
Orochi rose again
Each time starving and ravenous
Seeking a weakness in the hearts
Of humans
And always driven back
With the bitterest pain
And the dark side of love
Till the lunar priestess broke
And ceased to believe
That they could be together
For she remembered every kill
Every lifetime alone
And wished that she did not have
To live through it again
And the bright face of the moon
Turned away from the sun
Believing that the sun
Could not continue to love her
When every one of their lives
Ended in her death
But what she forgot
In her years of despair and pain
Was that where she changed
The sun was constant
Unwavering
And refused to be turned away
Or drawn into a conflict
Designed to give her the choice
To leave their cursed blessing
To live out one normal human life
And instead chose a world
Where they knew nothing
Of the solar and the lunar
Priestesses who had given them
Everything
But they knew peace
And love and hope
And the solar priestess chose a world
Where they were together
In death, but together
Awaiting rebirth
Always together
Never apart
Slowly healing the wounds of
Her lunar priestess
And giving her back what she thought
She could not have
Restoring her faith
And loving her through it all
And the spring where
A goddess dwelled
Once upon a time
No longer exists
Lost long ago to
The cruelty of humans
Who could no longer hear the goddess
Singing for them
Yet there are two who hear her now
Living an eternal dream
Living, dying and waiting
And living and dying and waiting again
Far back in the age of myth
There was a spring where a goddess dwelt