She is something to behold

Standing beside me

A redwood

Beaten

Broken

But golden

Satin ribbons of grace and resilience

Wrap around her veins

(Like a boxer wraps his forearms)

Seep through  battered skin

Drip from tear swollen eyes

Liquid sun

Even as the murderous fires of corruption and villainy

Engulf her thoughts

Surround her with an army of scorching light

She

Armed with only her hope and a battle cry

Refuses to fall submissive

Instead dancing against the fire in defiance

Of its merciless power

Bare and calloused feet shake the earth

Yelling in retaliation at the whispers of the malignant inferno

Screaming in agony at the unforgiving stars

Spitting blood in the eyes of the dying Byzantine Gods

Whose faces appear in the ashes of the damned

A single, unrelenting word to rattle olympus

“Justice!”

Grief and fear

For a fleeting, flickering moment

Are overcome

Crushed by the binding ancestral duty to survive

To silence the demons and malevolent deities that dine within the blazes of man

Standing beside me

A redwood

Satin ribbons in her veins

Golden

Unbreakable