And They Sing Holy Holy Holy

How rustred spatters sands you clash on, you still fight so hard.

Do you remember that summer, we were seventeen, and we first met each other.

And the barriers between us had just begun to crack apart like the break of day?

You feel the fire churn in your chest, keeping your body, our body furnace warm.

Nine hours long of pushing your body, our body, in the labor of getting us out of here.

And longer even of the days sat ridged still, making monsters out of the sounds of the benign just out of earshot.

And I know we'd breathe, just one more night, just one more, just one, one,

And even on the nights we slept, we'd awake with screaming horror, homecoming into the waking world,

A train trail of memories leaving us so far back there.

Leaving us hanging.

Ten years apart they fall, nearly in sync,

And I worry.

For now I stand, eldest living son,

And in five years, the time may come.

I have rehearsed my lines, my scornful eye

If I am met with You when I go.

But gods above and below and between

What happened to us?

Our homeland seems burnt earth, and I was asleep for so very long.

To carve it into the shape of a bird so that you might love me.

Maybe this time I've learned nothing.

Because I stand accused, pleading guilty as charged,

Of defying you, despising you.

And it's true.

Once I sang your praises like an exaltation of larks, raising my voice amongst the flock

Now, I spit at your feet, eye swelling shut from another low blow

You say I'm beneath you, but only for the pedistal you've placed yourself upon,

Carved from my people's bones.

After all this, and you offer platitudes of "father knows best" and "for your own good" and "for the wages of sin", and yet

Who out of the two of us, is truly complicit in atrocity?

Not I.

But you who has stood at the gates of time and allowed pain to pass through it unending like a foreverwar.

Not once has this planet known peace.

You tried to drown me, cast into the ocean and commanded me beg, to turn my eyes upon you to walk across the salted sea.

When I refused, and fought to land of my own accord, I knew you knew I knew.

What being claiming all love will drown their sons for not being daughters?

And they promised, they promised that you would find refuge Inside the forest walls with its bare metal trees and twisted ritual wires And you ran ran ran inside, Singing, yelling, calling out Hallelujah, And you believed them you believed them you believed them

And now you stand shaking, shaking scared as you know You know the truth of it all at the end you know you know They are setting fire to the forest so the prophecy is true They are setting fire to the forest so the prophecy is true They are setting fire to the forest so the prophecy is true

And you are running running running from the confines of the fences And you know they are fences lined with barbed wire And you know its been wrong, wrong wrong this whole time And you are running running running running But they are setting fire to the forest so the prophecy is true

And they said it was good. They said it was good. They are setting fire to the forest so the prophecy is true And they said it was good. They said it was good. They are setting fire to the forest so the prophecy is true And they said it was good. They said it was good. And now you are running and running and running

Going forward those involved will be signing with emojis. All previous posts assume to be from the POV of 🦋, the original host. From here on out, it will be a collective writing piece.

“We will not be vanquished, We will not be forgotten No matter how far along we are We’ll point ourselves towards the star”

Family is gracious, Something worth fighting for, But choice is what we need the most The old world fades like last year’s ghost.

We will not be vanquished We will not be left out As daybreak comes wounds become scars Our chorus sings both near and far We are not alone. We are made of many We are stronger than you know Repeat, repeat and let fear go The old world dies tonight. Never again will we look back Like asteroid in times of old Tonight we pull this chapter closed.

And I Will try To guide Those who seek me And I Will try to be There for those who need me.

And I Promise my self to service Those who I have chose to And I Love you More than You could ever know. You are not alone. You will not be vanquished No matter where in your life you are You’re never far from daybreak’s star.

You are not of one. You are among many. You strength comes from deep within Its time to let that power in. You are not alone. You have been, and will be loved You have a chance to make things right The old world dies ad dies tonight. You are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone.

I stretch my wings and look towards the northwest horizon and grin wide.

Off to the land of lonely stars.

Off to greet a brother in need, thousands of miles away.

Off to freedom and happiness.

Off to where I protect those I love the most.

I stretch my wings, and get ready for the long, long ride.