Arise Poem by Leinad Zerimar

Rain pelts his face as he plummets along the walls;
Pace unbroken through a pall of sky-showers.
An angel cries above,
But the wind drowns her out.

With a thunderous crash
He strikes the ground;
Shock-waves of dust and debris
Encircle him.
The battlefield before him lies dormant,
But not still.

One gathers the courage to face him.
Unremitting steel
Flings to his grasp.
The first stroke -
Tremors of impact jolt his arms -
Second, third, fourth,
The dowel strikes and rings
Like the tolling of bells;
Fluids cloud the air.

The rod shatters.
Thunder escapes a throat
Taught with misery;
Echoes of a lifetime of grief
Resound and pulsate
Through every muscle and bone,
Escaping from deep chambers
Of a ruptured soul.

Undulating fields rush forth,
Mandibles wide with harrowing cries
For blood.
Though hosts are with him,
He stands alone;
Dauntless as the wind.
Love is his armor,
Fury his only weapon.

Blow after terrible blow is struck.
Before long,
The metal rain starts falling,
Slantwise, against the wind.
He rushes forward,
Through the din of battle,
Fighting both monsters
And heart-wrenching cries from heaven.
Blood and tears mix with water and filth,
His vision clouds...

You are shouting;
I've hurt you, again.
I always seem to be hurting you.
'I can hear you in a whisper, '
You say,
'But you can't even hear me screaming! '
You cry.
I cannot meet your gaze.
You reach for me
And then you pull away.
I languish, irresolute;
For all at once I am too afraid
To be without you,
And too afraid to try...

Combat surrounds him, but
Lungs ache,
Legs weak,
Arms stoop,
Ribs broken,
Vision filled with blood.
'Arise, ' the angel cries out,
'Arise, my love! '

He lifts his countenance.
Somewhere in the distance,
Thunder rips through a precipice of stone.
His love is there;
His hopes,
His dreams,
His song!

Face contorted,
He ravages and maims;
Moving, racing,
Pouring forth all of his strength
To reach that final bastion:
The mouth of Hell.
'Let not your heart be filled with sorrow! '
He chastises himself,
'Fill it with rage! '
For he knows,
Rage shall inevitably surrender to denial;
Thusly follows the serenity of Golgotha.

Torment is his coal,
Sorrow his furnace,
Anguish his bellows,
Fueling his ire.
For a thousand yards his legs tremble,
But the erupting inferno of his heart
Can only be quenched with his own blood;
Ebbing the tide of war.

Desperate the enemy grows,
Fire and metallic rain
Flung also at the enemy's own.
Cannons loose,
Billowing clouds of hate.
Shells punish the blood-soaked soil;
Fire and brimstone rise
To darken the sky.
Dying screams
Become whispers of encouragement.
Her voice on the wind,
Like a chant of victory.

His rest in sight -
Suddenly overcome by wounds,
He stumbles
And falls.
His mind races,
His heart shudders,
His eyes fade...

'I love you, ' you say.
I look in your eyes and I see now
What my choices have done to you.
'Don't go.' you plead.

I step to the edge:

'Don't go! ' you cry out.
'I'm not a perfect person, ' I say.
'I never wanted you to be perfect, ' you counter,
'I only wanted you! '
'I was paralyzed by fear, ' comes my reply,
'That you would reject me;
That you would make me happy.'

I turn away:

'I would never have rejected you! ' you shout.
'I have caused you so much sorrow, '
I say to the fields of horror before me,
'With indecision and doubt;
I never meant to do those things to you.'

I look back:

Your eyes, like diamonds,
Imploring me with tears.
My heart sunders
And gives voice to tears of my own.
'I found a reason,
To change what I've become.
This reason now fills me;
I know what I must do,
To right all those wrongs,
To make all things anew.
My heart holds no fear now,
For that reason is you.'

I step away:

Rain pelts my face as I plummet along the walls;
Pace unbroken through a pall of sky-showers.
Fury and torment and guilt rip through me;
For what I have done to her;
For what I have inevitably chosen.
Though an army of a thousand monstrous souls
Stands before me...

He rises.

Shock-waves of dust and debris
Follow in the wake of his fury.
Fractured flesh and stone -
An unbroken line of wrath
From barriers of hope and love,
Through obliterated fields of slaughter,
To his final place.
The Beast's eyes widen with terror;
It never believed
He would make it so far.

It's aspect darkens
As it remembers him.
An angel once saved him from it;
Endangering her own soul
To bring his peace.
Now he must save her.
Now he must free her from
His darkness,
His demon,
His doom...

He pushes the button...

Shock-waves of dust a debris
Mushroom about me;
A conflagration of scorching incandescence
Reverberates across Armageddon.
My sacrifice.
My last gift.
Now she will be free
From me.
Now her heart can love
And she can again sing with reason...