Subject: I might as well write something too. ;) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 02:07:22 -0600 From: Rindimo Reply-To: TLK-L@lionking.org Organization: L.O.S.T.--C.A.U.S.E. To: TLK Mailing List . The Sun's Reflection in His Eyes By: Charles Barta AKA Rindimo Cheetah The old soldier stood at the mouth of the cave. The girl stood beside him, curious of his ways. The sun glared hard though its setting was near, And the wind grew strong as few stars did appear. "I've hated the dusk, for all I've been worth. No more can be done, but to rest from the work. The dawn was so more pleasant, when I was of age Of things that of games, of youth and of play. It was a time before the fight that we've been in, That one lonely night, revelation did begin. I stared out my window from my room in my house And the sunset I understood, but for a moment..." The girl looked at the man, with the dirt on his brow With the stains on his uniform, the pain in him now The wounds on his body, the dried sweat on his face, The labor of his breathing, and the age of disgrace. The muscle and sinew of experience did show But also the wrinkles and Greyness did grow. Unrest was inside him, though tired he was. But his orders were incomplete, his final torment... "Sir, may I ask why you don't lay your head down? Why you stare in the field, why you stare at the ground? You shouldn't be up with the wounds that you have Please lay down sir, or your strength will be halved." The soldier sat down at where he was standing He looked at himself, and began reprimanding With a tear in his eye, and a sigh of his breath, He beckoned an ear for something he said times before. "Dear child, I've seen so much you don't know. Of hate, and of death, of pain and of woe. My allies are gone. In that field they all lay. I wasn't the best, but I'm still alive to this day. They all died heros, and saved my own soul For reasons unknown, save I was just a young foal. I hadn't lived life, so they said I should live But am I better off living to finish this war? Years I have toiled, for a cause that is just I've been at the bloodbaths, and humanity at rust. The worst of the worst I was at the start. Never could a weapon hurt as the pain in my heart. You want me to rest, to forget for a while What torture and evils so dark and vile remain out there, waiting for a chance to devour The next child so innocent and new to this hour? No. I can't stop, until my orders are finished. Rest is a luxury disillusioned and diminished. I can never sleep until one thing is done: That I finish the fight, and the war is won. You know not the price of duty, nor it's catch. You've listened to seasoned veterans dispatch Their tales of horror, yet you did not heed The urgency of their voice, the help that they plead. They don't tell the tale, so far as I know, To beg for your pity, to sip from your sorrow. It's a message I say! One of great haste! The more time we rest, the more time we waste! I'm not a soldier, but am a broken man Until I'm on the field fighting as hard as I can To rebuild the walls that we tear down, And bring back lives of my fallen from the ground. But the sunset today... It speaks so much. I recall lost knowledge, and it's tender to the touch. I remember what it feels, to be free from this world, And dreams were awakened as the dusk was unfurled. So many things have never been completed... So many reserves have been so depleted... So little..." It was then that the warrior stopped to subside And take a deep breath, and lay on his side. Like so many fallen, be they enemy or friend, he laid with eyes open, as the sun's time did end. "I had taught nothing," He whispered and sighed. "Tommorrow, I'll live, though I wish I had died. The troops that we lost in the latest of war Were so young... had no time to explore..." They came and went, much like those before me. Our orders the same, yet they did not see. And the allies of mine that were near my age Weren't near as valiant, nor were they as sage." The girl sat beside him, and from the hiding place did see fires and sounds of men and machinery. and the few survivors that were in the cave Weren't like the old soldier, wasn't as brave. Silence she heard, but not from the old man. Hiding in a cave was not what he planned. Fear was something his duty never knew. And he said one last thing before the sunset was through: "You prepare yourself, child, for when I go There shall be such a force like you'll never know. The fighting has changed, and I pray you will see What I saw in the sunset, and what it's telling me." The End. -- -Rindimo Cheetah (rindimo@bellsouth.net) +Founder, and only member of L.O.S.T.-- C.A.U.S.E (League Of Simplistic Technology-- Creating All Unforeseen Solutions Evident) +FCOS Lost & Found Clerk ICQ # : 12915153 +Amateur Artist/Writer/Musician AOL IM : Rindimo1 +Bachelor ? <=7 Webpage: http://www.lionking.org/~rindimo/index.shtml + Honorable Member of the Pride Keepers. "One thing nothing can destroy, is our pride deep inside we are one!" ********************************************************************* Well don't stop. Whatever you do, don't stop. Because as soon as you stop, you're forgotten. - Mageuzi *********************************************************************