Faded Flower

by Sophia Anya Lee

So they can feel alive." Because what is aeons of existence without feelings? Scathach's story of inner conflict. Poem, angst. Please read and review!

.:Faded Flower:.

By Sophia Anya Lee

So cold

Sometimes she wonders

If she's really alive

Because what is it

That separates the living from the dead

What governs the laws that separate the two worlds

Is it that their chest heaves with the breath of life

The whiff of air seeping through them

Sustaining them

Then she is no more living

Than the shells that strew the ocean's shore

For she breathes not

Not now, not ever

Is it that they grow old

And then fade away, subsistence forgotten

Their souls dispersed in the vast eternity of the cosmos

Then she lives not

For aeons of existence have neither aged

Not withered her flawless form

Not now, not ever

Is it the dementia, the fear

The irrational phobia

That grips all with life when threatened

Then she is not living

For warrior that she is

Fear has no place in her heart

Not now, not ever

Is it that they revel in delight

In joy's bright light, they bathe in bliss

Is it that they know what it feels like to be happy

Then she lives not

For delight is as alien an emotion as fear itself

She feels neither joy nor happiness surge within her

Not now, not ever

Is it that the living know what is love

What it feels like to know that one is cherished, treasured, loved

Beyond reason

Then she is no more living

Than the soil underfoot

For she feels not love's irresistible desire

Not now, not ever

What makes her alive then, she asks

When she has not what it takes to live

When she feels not that which makes us living

Is she like the faded flower

A mere travesty of life

A mere imitation

Suspended in an ethereal state

That lies neither in life's vibrant realm

Nor the death's shadowy world

Once upon a time

She tried to convince herself

That she was a warrior

And a warrior's heart is detached

With room for neither mercy nor pity

Nor love nor joy

Nay, but these emotions were weak

So she told herself

And that feelings were only for the fragile

Thus, she wrought upon herself

A lesson that the best warrior

Is cold and unfeeling

That on the battlefield

One's mind must lie devoid of human feeling

Only goal being vanquishing the foe

Watching him cower and plead

Quiver and bleed

For clemency has no place in war

But with infinity's ceaseless flow

She learns better

She grows wiser

She learns that a warrior must know emotion

Must learn to feel

Because what is a warrior driven by the mere calls of duty

Sometimes, a warrior must fight

Not because obligation compels him to

But because he fights for someone he loves

What is love, she asks herself

The poets sing to her, an emotion divine

The artist paints his love onto blank stretches of canvas

Whilst the writers scribe love's tragic course

The heartbroken tell of lingering smiles

Of foolish mistakes

They cannot leave behind

The lovestruck speak of the moon and stars

And love's only joy

That dwells in their hearts

Yet, she finds not her answers

She knows not love

A unfamiliar sentiment, she tells herself

And then, she sees

The moon and the sun

And thus, she sees love reveal itself

The moon and sun

Mighty and magnificenct

In their own ways

Cold and hot

Night and day

Fire and ice

Different

Yet diversity, they cherish

For one sees not the moon without the sun

And a bond so deep

Binds them together

A bond woven into life's very essence

Thus, she knows what is love

A warrior hath a lesson learnt

That love is not weakness

Nay, but love lies far above

Only within the reach of the strongest

And the deserving

Love, the supreme emotion

Free from bonds of time and space

Unknown to even those who thrive on it

But now she knows

She knows that love is pleasure, love is joy

Love is the very power

That spurs the strongest warrior to his fight

She knows now

That love

Is life

So cold

So lonely

Sometimes, she wonders if she's really alive

Maybe

Just maybe

She wants to know what it feels like to love.

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So, finally, we have a Nicholas Flamel archive! Yay! It's been a long time since I read the series, but I remember one particular dialogue that struck me … Scatty saying, 'So they can feel alive.' Thus, this poem. I really suck at poetry and I have no idea how this is so … please review, it'll make my day!