Valiance

Valiance

Do you feel it

It’s finally here

What we’ve been waiting for this whole time

Longing with a vehement desire for that one drop

That quenches the thirst for what feeds life

I’m looking down and

Drip                                            

I feel it first on the back of my neck

One hit and it trails down my spine

Irregular beats from the tapping of fingernails

Transform into a crescendo of bullets

Bombs headed for destruction

Dropped directly over heads

And I am the target

Exploding into a fervor of melee

The crowd bursts into dispersion

Daredevils leap across buildings

Swords pointed to the sky

As if these petty warriors of earth can defeat the powers above

Everything holds onto me for dear life

Clothes wrenching onto skin only to slip away

I feel my chest tighten coiling itself up into a condensed knot

Retreating back into its shell under my ribcage

Collarbones collapse with the avalanche of fear

And the burden is too heavy

Soporific eyes focus in on the figure moving towards me

He trudges step by step through the battlefield

A vanguard followed by an army

The resilient wrinkles in between my eyebrows instantly release

Every piece lifts up in relief

I am a lone survivor no more

We are a collection of valiance

Pieced together by serendipity

Or an omnipotent overseer perhaps

This is the cadre that peers into my soul

The ones who dance as minatory bullets strike the cobblestone streets

There is an expectance for bullets to triumph

but bombs to fractionally miss in a fortuitous manner

and as everyone else hides to safety

we are the ones who dash into the danger zone

firmly digging our heels into the bullseye

arms spread, reaching opposite sides of the earth

chin up to not what we feel as vulnerability

but the rapid pumping of our hearts

that reminds us we are alive.