A/N: Written for the 100_poems challenge on livejournal, poem 73/100 and day 26.
Character Poems: the Chosen through Time
15. Lǐ Jiànliáng
He was always holding back
but there was no world where one could live
and not hurt.
It was a sad truth, that pain
was always inflicted somehow, somewhere
and refusing to fight did nothing for that
in the end.
He could hold the other like a stuffed animal,
keeps his claws retract
but his hands would bleed soon enough;
he couldn't trap the whole world in one palm.
He had to fight, in the end, to hurt others
to protect others still: the screams, tears
and hate-filled looks were something he couldn't
hide away from, under the drawer.
The life he lived was worth that:
the selfish…and the selfless.
It was another sad truth, that you couldn't
fight and say that it's not for yourself,
not even a little bit.