He was the perfect soldier, like a white

pawn on an inky board. Innocent fray:

'Unstained', they named the better man

Who swore to find the other side of Day.

He followed every order graven in

Cold stone. He never broke the dusty chains

Of honor, twisting close around his heart;

The iron singing thunder in his veins.

-o-

He dreamed about Tomorrow, the other

side of day. Tear-streaked morning never came,

Rain-washed. The only dawn was drowned in blood

And ringed in coiled dragons: rising flame.

The tide of blood that stained horizons, weep-

ing, splattered gently on his brittle face,

He buried, dead, in rushing water deep.

His hands were clean, without a traitor stain.

-o-

His men lie around him, dead at whispered last,

The light of life drains out behind their eyes;

(The clanging horrors of his dreams, cracked glass,

Were false. Despair in icy silence reigns.)

The only color left to him is red,

To mock brave, innocent and silent white:

An afterglow of symmetry he once

Believed could end the screaming, endless night.

-o-

His shield shatters. Hopeless to the bone,

The footsteps of Death echo in his ears,

In the final stand of a man alone.

Light sings. He wakes from all his coiling dreams.


A/N: A nightmare, AU poem. How very RandomCelt. *sarcasm* But really, please tell me what you think.

~RandomCelt