The Warrior's Journey (Poem)

He stands in triumph looking down across the vast and expansive valleys lit with dawn's first kiss

The iridescent illumination of undisturbed path along the ridge testifies to his trail-setting march

The journey burnt the lungs of his soul. Consuming the mind with its ambush of fire.

The pain of the ascent debilitating, exploited and concentrated. Inviting the probing tacticians lurking in wait, stalking The Way, seeking to consume his eternal light in hopeless abyss.

Doubting sentinels crushed amber ends of their smokes into the dirt on his grave. Organic. Buried alive, in heart only. Hope crucified. The sinister soil feeding parasitically off of the life of a dream dared to be dreamt.

The doubt assimilated with the soul, traveling in stealth, intravenously.

The siren beckons, coercing the battle to rise. Pursue.

The temptation moved slithering across the path seemingly almost in cadence with his march. As the sky darkened, the liar's voice sought to marginalize the journey, pleading for a settlement. An accord shy of the heart's summit.

Lies hammer the armor, storm after storm, causing the soul to stir with vengeful aggression

The woman seductively beckons his heart just to the edge of the path ahead

The sword had to drawn, unsheathed as insolence feeds a holy fire. It is a time to relish the brutal, unflinching cold execution. Put to death are wretched demons of opposition. Cold steel lumbered through contorted flesh.

And he kneels, laboring again over the blood enveloping the liar's ground. The soul of the warrior is in communion with the one who always will be. Sanctification. Kneeling prayer. Exaltation.

The sun races, plummeting westward, as he is ushered with a youthful vigor by the spirit of David, King of Israel, late afternoon rays lighting the path at his feet.

She emerges from his side along the ridge, having caressed his shoulder, and made light his soles. Her succulent kiss awakens.

The sword is emphatically plunged into the earth, as the sun sets behind the imposing range of great mountains--battle peaks and rumbling valleys--of the future that lie ahead.

Jared L. Still 26 May 2007