Category : Poems

Sub Category : N/A

Bloody and defeated I can see the waves from the heat spinning and dancing in almost a celebratory smog from the dust as they celebrate my defeat.
The sweat from my enemy dropping in small cold pools on my gleaming shiny splint-mail recently polished for this arena.
War dog they called me, for I was the lone wolf at the gate.
Hundreds have fallen by my blade, thousands have tasted it's iron. 
I stood a proud champion, arrogance and condescension as I spoke. 
I feel my right leg snap as my opponent spikes his shiny new broad sword through the plates of my boots. 
I scream in pain, writhing, twisting, my head spinning. 
Pulling myself up off of this earth, I rise only centimeters and grab upon my knee.
Rising to my feet, my unplanned and unexpected defeat seemed imminent. 
I am not immune to death, I am only immune to his death. 
The crowd grew deathly quiet. I could hear the blood rushing in my head as if it would never be on time again to a family dinner.
Da-rush-da-rush like an ancient battle drum playing a cacophony to silence the crows anxiously mocking my rise. 
My war axe connects and I collapse.
My career over, his life squeltered in my hands. 
Only the truly penitent man, may be graced with his survival. 
In my collapse, my heap upon the earth, visions of wolves, and the owls that quietly pace them, their wings of silence and their talons of gold.
In my defeat a new chapter
My call, the battle, is done
I awake screaming as they saw through the last nerve in my leg, only to faint at the sight of the destruction I brought myself.
Neither a hero, nor a villain, but far from a man. 
In my new beginning, the battle, will continue. 
It's only different in faces, and tools, my sacrifice, some higher purpose a falsehood. 
My blood surrounding me.
My tenacity the only survival.
I request only to you that you cease to externalize your battle.
For the call to battle is everlasting in men's hearts
The only place it belongs.