As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War

8- ❂❂❂ -XII

. . .our Preacher wakes from dreamt delirium

in tears, reliving all the life that's led

him here from fairest Maiden's tragic death,

so real once again he swears the faint

aroma sickly sweet of smoke still clings

upon his nostrils in this woken state.

He opens mouth to gasp for sobbing breath

and presses elbow's crook across his eye

to hide his shame from Sky who gazes down

and judges ev'ry action that he takes.                10

He let it happen—let his foolishness

destroy the happiness that twice he held;

the first his Maiden taken by his pride,

the second Spouse, destroy'd by worriment.

A foolish bastard hath he always been,

no matter how his halves are mad or calm.

He wipes the tears away and raises up

his hand to open eye and gaze on it

by little light outside that's seeping in

from th'alleyway the sun can seldom touch                20

except at just this early morning's time,

and in this moment now he makes a vow

with pain upon his chest and soul and heart

to be a better man from now and on

for Doll and second Progeny in her

now that he's shed himself by this withdraw'l.

He closes th'hand, encasing sun and moon

within his fist so tighten'd over palm

and notes this promise isn't yet enough

for all the damage hath he caus'd in life,                30

and all of such humanity as whole

have brought about their ailing Mother Earth.

He must so yet again reform himself

so he can shape a newer Paradise

to save his Maiden from her suffer'd hell,

and too the Spouse he wrong'd to cause her fate

and ev'ry other soul that suffers there,

reliving but the moments ere their deaths,

repeating these for all eternity.

He knows that this is possible, or else                40

why would the Sky have granted him this gift?

Why would his lovers in their afterlives,

with all the knowledge granted them therein,

have stated such a possibility?

And how could the ambrosial sapling have

instructed him in such if otherwise?

Our Preacher rises from his ashen bed

reborn by his determination forg'd