By Michael Aaron Gallagher
Oh Death, your familiar face.
My soul you’ve come to take.
But surrender willingly, not I.
Nor cry.
Each breath I claw with wild eyes wide.
In sin I made my fortune, crown of rust.
I rose from ash to thrones above,
Yet I will not allow your rage,
To grind my bones to rotting dust.
No patriot am I.
No conqueror.
This page be naught but one,
Tale of the knights who fell to earth,
Before the battle was yet won.
Forgotten in the soil of time,
My blood will not remain,
But fear I will not give to you,
I will not speak your name.
Labored though my breath may be,
With pulse I cannot feel,
You’ve taken nothing from me now,
My burning kingdom was not real.
Though you may have silenced me,
My words will fight again,
For legends never die a death,
They cannot die again.
Excerpt from Michael Aaron Gallagher’s unpublished poetry. Copyright © 2018.
The above work is not to be used, reprinted or broadcast without written permission from the author.