A new day was beginning,
The battle received the dawn
The field lay strewn with weeping
With the dead and almost gone.
Enough I said as I wiped my tears
I've finally reached my end
Tired of waiting for help to come
I decided to send instead
As I searched through all the bodies
The friendly to the foe,
With every piece of armor
More buried became my woe
With every strap and buckle
More my anger just increased
They would regret this
That I swore
They would join the now deceased
As I marched alone and lonely
My hand strayed to my hilt
And my mind roved on to wonder
How all this hate was built
Past burned house and settlement
And more bodies of the dead,
My hands I filled with arrows
To help them in my stead
My boots pressed into the road ahead
I dared not look behind,
More I just stored the gruesome scenes,
In the dark back of my mind
I walked along the rutted roads
I strayed on night lit paths,
And more and more I wondered
Where I would meet my last
Not a friendly face nor evil one
Anywhere I looked,
But I knew if wrong one met me,
He would pay for lives he took
My eyes were filled with sorrow
My teeth now clenched with hate,
And my anger fed me better
Than the scant food that I ate
And when I finally met them,
The battle was begun
They scorned me and they laughed,
But their battle was not won;
I screamed with rage
I flew ahead, and
Their swords just barely stung
My hate for them just filled my mind,
My faithful bow I strung.
My shots flew straight and true
And I hit their leader square,
No more things that beast would kill,
The others just stood there
Still I came advancing,
They stood there like stuck dumb,
I shouted scorn and jeers at them,
And it seemed they let me come.
Suddenly they all broke free,
What had been there now
Had passed,
Their arrows riddled in me
As they came on swift and fast.
My fingers felt the fletching,
And I knew this was my last.
Sill I stood there fighting,
More arrows, then I loosed,
I wonder what they thought of me,
But just then, I was free to choose.
****************************
In the end there were to many,
For just one fool-hearted brave,
And I knew there'd be no flowers,
When I rested in my grave.
The light in my eyes must
Have scared them,
But theirs' looked glazed and cold
They were afraid to look upon me
Afraid of all my scold.
And when I threw my helm back
To all of them I told:
"I may have lost,"
I said clearly though I was
On my knees,
"But none of you have won,
for this victory has no gleam"
My hair blew back,
My eyes were bright,
And just before I fell,
I saw them look uncertain,
And that was just as well.
**********************
And now I lay here in this dark,
No more a maiden fair,
And never again will I walk
Upon a golden stair.
I have dried my eyes of weeping,
I have cleared my heart of hate.
But all of this I realized,
Had come just minutes
Late.

FIN