You can't stop me

A Synaptic Sprawl poem

Image: Cullan Smith via Unsplash

This poem is for Wild K. Nebula’s latest Tides of the Soul prompt. It’s also a companion piece to another narrative poem I did called Still, I Rise.

It’s one perspective, one story, set in a vast and uncaring multiverse known as The Synaptic Sprawl.

---

Circumstances brought us together,
but love kept us that way.
All of that pain.
All that suffering.
It led me to you.
I’d do it all again. 

They wanted to make Wardens. 
Immortal soldiers, hell bent 
on fighting in their name. 
They’re unthinkable, indescribable. 
Exiled, pushed beyond the stars.
Hungry for revenge. 

I suppose we have that in common. 
We inherited their fire. 
Just not the kind they intended. 
Ours will never go out. 
And soon, they will know 
what it’s like to burn.  

I will give them this: 
They introduced me to you. 
The Sprawl is so vast. 
Infinite possibilities. 
And yet, I can’t imagine 
a world where we never meet. 

They say love endures forever, 
but what happens when you do, too? 
Can love really last for hundreds of years? 
Across uncountable eons? 
Or is that what mortals say, 
knowing it will never be true? 

I honestly don’t know, 
but I can promise you this: 
My love for you will never die. 
There will be times where it’s tested.
Seasons when it goes quiet, 
but our fire will never go out. 

I have a message,
for the ones who made us this way. 
You, who cursed us to wander infinity.
You thought you were making soldiers. 
And you were. 
Just not the kind that fight for you. 

You thought if you took away death, 
That we would fall in line. 
You thought immortality, 
would sap all meaning from life. 
In your infinite knowledge,
you somehow didn’t consider love. 

How did you miss this? 
Somewhere inside your forbidden forms, 
Your kind knows what it’s like to love. 
Zal’Ythra, the mother. 
Azalthorath, the father. 
Their love birthed the Sprawl. 

The irony isn’t lost on me. 
You would destroy everything.
Burn it all to the ground, 
in the name of love. 
And yet, 
You cannot abide ours? 

That’s fine, it’s too late now. 
You made a monster. 
Two of them, in fact. 
We broke free,
and now you think, 
you can put us back in your cage? 

You can’t stop me.
That’s by design. 
You think you can keep her from me? 
I will never stop looking. 
And when I find you, 
I’ll introduce you to death. 

I'll hold her in my arms. 
You'll beg for mercy. 
I will offer none. 
Together, we'll watch, 
as everything you built, 
burns to the ground. 

In all of the Sprawl, 
There’s no one else like me. 
Except her. 
Circumstances brought us together. 
And now, 
Love will keep us that way. 

---

Thank you for Reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing

Listen to this after reading, like pairing a glass of wine with dinner.