The Children of the Crucible

                                   By Amaranth Rose

 

You do not have to know my name;

By my actions you know me best.

My tension's high when you're at rest.

I watch, alert for any danger there may be

Hidden in your gesture, touch, or outstretched hand.

Always first I question, "Will you do me harm?"

Even when your kindness should not be in doubt.

 

As lost as children, sired by a less than lesser god

Upon a world not eager for our presence.

Thrust coldly into being in a world that makes no sense,

Forbidden simple screams, allowed no complaints;

No one believes our truth so we lie to get by.

Our truth is too dangerous for the others to hear;

Too monstrous is our pain; too overwhelming our fear.

 

My legacy from a life of danger

Makes every person, known or stranger

Suspects first; unknown dangers;

To be met with apprehension.

Flight at the first sign of discord or strife

Might not be gracious but it has saved my life.

I'm just not sure what I'm saving it for anymore.

 

The best steel is made in the hottest flame;

If that's true then I must surely be the very best

For I have survived the severest of tests

On my way through the crucible of Life.

What destiny brings a child forth

Who never feels a sense of worth,

A misbegotten Grendel from life's "oops" bin.

 

Can you be therefore a little kinder,

A little gentler to these damned souls

Whose crucibles were left too long in coals

Not meant for ordinary living things?

Perhaps we're meant for Heaven after all,

We've known more demons than Lucifer after the fall;

Could Death be anticlimax after all?

 

Survivors of the crucible, these afrighted children,

Need some gentle gathering-in to lead them

Into some sheltered lee to bring them

Close enough to normalcy to realize

Some sense of kinship with the rest;

Close enough to realize all are one species;

That, "We are all of one blood, thou and I."

 

We exist as if a race apart,

Perhaps defective from our start,

Born without choice into our part;

Too coward to escape, too frightened to be led.

Solitary creatures slinking silently in shadow,

Wearing armor the finest that mankind can make,

Protected from hate, pain, danger and love; especially love.