From rowan@mail1.wolfe.net Wed Dec 25 01:08:02 1996
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 13:05:55 +0000
From: rowan@mail1.wolfe.net
To: b5-creative@lists.best.com
Subject: SUBMISSION  [poem: "Don't Go!"

This is only my second piece of B5 fiction I've done.  
Read, Comment, Enjoy.

Jari James   [rowan@wolfenet.com]


                 "Don't Go!" 
[Ivonava's lament on the loss of Sheridan & Garibaldi.]
******************************************************
In the beginning, we were three:
The Voice, the Sword and the Blood.
     The Voice of  Reason and Strength.
     The Sword of Swift Justice.
     The Blood of  Fierce Dedication.
We were to become:
     The rocky shore that stood in defiance before 
     the crash of angry waves that broke their strength
     upon us.
The last great defense of the Legions of Light to stand 
     firm against the encroaching Darkness.

We'd face down the demons of Hell and wrest 
     back from them the peace of Heaven.
We'd rally the scattered worlds about us:  
      striking deep into the Shadow's heart wielding 
      a sword of brilliant starfire.
Our destinies lay before us, gleaming pearl-like in the night.
Nothing seemed to be beyond our grasp.

And now?
 It's over. 
All of it is gone.  
The hope, the strength, the fire.. gone as if it never 
     had existence. 
The three have become the one 
      and that one has become alone.
The Fates held out the straws of chance 
     and we each drew. 
The two of you lost and I won, 
     as if this can be called winning.

It's my lot: that I stay and you go.
Do not worry about me here.  
I know my duty and the place it has left me.  
We are warriors. 
It is not our lot to go quietly into the good night, 
     but to claw and scream and fight for every meter lost or won. I
am held here by chains of duty. 
     By chains of love.  
Fighting to protect and keep safe all that you held dear. 

I'll walk the shadowed paths that lay silent and 
    death dark before me. 
And I swear: they shall not win;
     they shall not escape unscathed.  
They will be made to meet their reckoning.
And I will make them pay:  for every rock, every planet, 
     every sun; with a price beyond any such that they 
     can imagine. 
I will send an honor guard of their fallen dead to serve you 
     in the life after. 
I will litter the constellations with the hulks of their ships. 

And when all of this has been done, all I'll be left to 
     show for my diligence will be a cold hard knot 
     where my heart had been. 
A deep, bleak abyss that my soul has become:
     all hollowness and emptiness.  
In one swift stroke I have lost
     father and brother, 
     advisor and confidant, 
     friend and friend again.  
It isn't right!  
It isn't fair!  
How dare you go where I can't follow?
How dare you leave me here:
     all alone in the night?