Work Text:
My father, the faraway King,
filled my island home
with books written by men like you
to train me for the war.
Raised near water,
you were a man of the sea
hurtling through the waves until
you washed up on our shore.
A man of stone,
dried by windless,
unrelenting heat.
Men like you
have kept men of ours
in cages and chains.
How could I trust
that the spark striking
against your gravel voice
wouldn’t set our home ablaze,
columns of thick smoke
choking our breath?
Tomorrow came.
Then another, and another.
Sun, then wind and rain.
I watched and waited.
I drew breath.
You made yourself
into a weapon
whose force I learned to wield.
See how I give you purpose,
direction, heft.
How steady my hands.
How true my aim.
How unstoppable this war.