Chapter 10 of “The Proven Life”
Serenity runs rampant
In the dawn of a new age
Civilization has been drawn
From ashes of the people
We died defending what we know
What keeps us moving each day
Our lands, our fields
Our children, our hearts
Vast sand dunes stretch
Across the desert
From sunrise to sunset
The land moves with grace
Rusty rocks rising
Above the desert floor
Pock marks across dry river bed
Years ago living, scorching death
Shadows dancing
Daybreak upon us
We walk under
Heavens guidance
Within the flowing, murky red river, a violet Rose
Travels on a journey towards the horizon
It does not know what is there and beyond
Where the land meets the sky
The sky above the lands is vast
The glow, golden
Sand dunes rise and fall for miles
The compass does not work here
Where the sky meets the land,
The great battle will take place
Pitting humankind against ascending angels
One last chance for survival
Among the dunes
A lonely Phoenix walks across scorching sands
He does not stop to rest, and has no place to go
Aimlessly traveling south
Every two-thousand years, the Phoenix
Becomes strong, powerful and rigid
A lurid, violent red can be seen in his eyes
The flames are shown as his anger
Boils over like molten lava from a phial
He takes flight to the sky
From there, the river and the great barrier are seen
The world is now his to conquer
The wind glides along the journey
To search the world around
Nearing the high cliffs
The upper bounds to attainable knowledge
For years upon years, searching the land
Looking for the next offering, while following the river north
He spots the lonely violet rose
Traversing the red river
For the next one thousand years
The Phoenix encircled the Rose
Threatening, teasing
Letting fear do most of the work
The battle continued for two more centuries
As their journey took them closer to the horizon
And the darkening, widening sky with
Thunder and lightning strikes destroying sand dunes
The Rose could no longer endure
One dark and ominous day
With the skies rumbling a death march
The Rose was overtaken by the Phoenix
Swooping down, lanced his claws into the Rose
Raising it from the river
The Rose’s petals fell to the earth
As a mist began to descend from the sky
Now there was nothing left
As the river still flowed towards the horizon
There was nothing in the sky
Between the lands and cliffs
Yet the sun still shone upon
The dunes forever into eternity
As a rose once again began to rise
From the land where mist fell
Lost eternally, fearing infinitely
In the middle of a desert
Dropped there by time
To defend for and survive
Nothing to lose
Nothing to gain
I ran unheeded as it began to rain
To find the holy river leading to the shrine
For upon its sacred floor
I shall find the sands of the Distant Shore
For in these sands, I must be immersed
If the death march is to commence.