A Dethroned King

On top of the world, I look out and see my kingdom thrash and surge

With the blood and lives of the millions who bow before me

I look out at this wasteland I've created

In preparation for the end

And while my veins pulse with power,

None of this seemed worth it in the end.

I look back on all these little lies I've told,

All the shattered glass, all the thousands of teardrops

And all the people I've hurt.

For those dearest to me were the first ones to strike.

One poisoned word, one leap was all it took.

And yet they did not give up.

Back then, I laughed at this.

How could they not know?

How could they not know it was the end for me

And that, with the darkness swirling inside, that I was never coming back?

And yet my eldest brother continued to enter the world I'd created

In the hopes of finding the light still inside it.

I raised my staff against him, moon clashing against sun

And I found myself falling to the ashes, from which I rose again.

From this broken body, I have forged an empire

That stretches vast across the soil of our world.

From this twisted mind, I have found magic strong enough

To blot out the sun itself.

From these dripping lies, I found a truth

Greater than the universe itself.

But looking on all of this, my accomplishments, my destiny

Seems small as a grain of sand.

How can this be, when I've finally found it all?

How can this be, when the throne rests in the palm of my hand?

None of this makes any sense.

And yet, deep down, I know why I bleed this way.

I know why Thor will continue to search,

Why mother would have too if she had lived.

Because, even as I travel towards the dark,

I know the ways of the light.

I know that this is not to be my demise.

Struggling to calm the storm within, I stir it more.

The winds howl at what is left of my broken heart.

The lightning thrashes at the sunshine in my shadows.

I calm the storm with a wave of my hand

And wait for Ragnarok with the eyes of a wolf.

Hungering for power, for triumph, for something more

Than the shell of the man that I currently am

Crouching in the dark, weeping in silence,

Wearing a cloak that fits me not.

Though I know there is more, I also believe

That all will eventually come to light

When sky sinks into sea and the sun is swallowed up

Allowing Thor and I to see each other, just once,

For who we truly have become.