A Protector Unlost

By Cliff Lake

 

A Protector Unlost

 

An underworld you thought forgotten,

Rises up to meet you in the unquiet silence,

Deep in a night unfortuitously alone.

A fantasy you thought you had created,

A reality coalescing in the dark.

 

Grinning creatures pass, speaking riddles,

Answered in scrolls unread,

And known now too intimately.

Familiarity seeps from every landscape,

Carved into an existence

You tried abandoning,

And now catches you again.

 

A hero’s quest incomplete,

A mission accepted in a child’s dream,

A test and a pursuit unfulfilled,

Here again seeking your virtue,

Or what remains of it.

 

A sword is offered…

 

What integrity have you lost?

What remains to you now?

Dare you immerse in this fantasy?

Dare you refuse?

A Voice calls, resonant, not demanding,

And still imperious.

Yet it asks.

Still, it asks.

Why do you not answer?

 

The visions come again,

You have seen them before.

Lands laid waste,

Whole populations displaced,

Or simply gone.

Creatures put to run,

Or slaughtered wholesale –

Smoking ruins and rotting remains:

A future almost realized,

And a parallel to your now.

 

You left this behind once,

Afraid to get lost in it,

Afraid that it could become real,

Afraid that it already is.

 

There is a world you could save…

Or maybe more than one.

More than one…

 

Perhaps there was never really any choice.

Take up your sword,

And save us all.

 

Cliff Lake 7/8/2023

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2023

Location: Dalton, MA, USA

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