I am driven by a lone wolf that is only plagued by two fears:
My own shadow that follows me in the night,
And the moon-howling screams that escape my soul and pierce my ears in fright.
All other creatures that my glance pierces in the forest night
Seem tame or defeatable, outright!
Even in all their diversity and complex might,
I fear no outsider, I fear no fight.
I am the beast that has no natural enemies,
Nothing that in battle I cannot withstand.
I am the beast with no threat or enemies,
Other than the perils of the self—
The mirror man.
I fear no beast in this land,
Unless I see my reflection, unless I see the man.
For eons, I have and continue to keep a step ahead
Of the creeping relentless shadow,
The one that is cast from me, the one that is cast from you.
Perhaps for another thousand years, I will still wonder—
Who terrifyingly screams?
Perhaps for another hundred generations,
I will let my own voice haunt my dreams.
Every era has one beast or two,
It’s so rare there have only been a few.
In the mirror, suddenly he points at himself
And challenges in courageous madness.
He points again at his reflection and screams,
“Tonight one of us will be slain in violent sadness.
I can’t believe I could not see it, that the enemy was you.”
I have made eye contact with the true destructor,
So now the war begins.
My declaration ripples through reality,
It reaches those with wings.
Meanwhile, the angelic generals, bored and half-asleep,
React to the trumpets that sound the call,
And in an act of realization, pull out old rusty swords—
Scraping noisily from their scabbards all.
The word has spread, the halls of Amenti are called to excited alarm.
They begin to free-fall from the heavens, shining, excited, and armed.
“It’s true,” Michael says to his Legions,
“One of them has screamed out into the night,
A human being that is ready for the only true fight.
A human being that will face his own shadow and no longer turn away.
We have to get there in time so that he is not swallowed by the hordes.”
In angelic unison, they chant as they tear through the clouds,
“Shields up, brothers, from the heavens we fall.”
“He is God’s animal, a beast, a madman, and an angel, all housed in one space.
Inside this vessel, the final war will take place.”