5d20 Disadvantage

5d20 Disadvantage

Rebellions are always

The most bloody affairs

Sacrificial slaughter

To an abstract cause

His strength must remain

His magic run bountiful

Washing over the wounds

Of the devoted rebels

Fighting with farmer's tools

And torches

Against iron, steel,

And flaming artillery

It is one battle lost

After another

The ground gained, lost

Until there is none to stand upon

He stands in a mixed puddle

Of ally's and enemy's blood

No longer can he play the role of healer

Now he must be the fighter

His story continues...

Changing Perspectives

Changing Perspectives

With foreshadowed eyes
I see a future once unknown

With shrouded eyes
I look back at a life undone

With open eyes
I see this day before me

My eyes
My eyes

They see what I have seen
What I see
And what I will see

I look where I choose to
And see an incomplete picture
My eyes must see
With eyes of another

To find those eyes
With mind and mine
Is my vision
Of a new, more complete view

Of the infinite world around me

Memory Lane

Memory Lane

Turn the page and feel again
Read the words and wonder
What was it that happened that day
To make me feel the way captured in writing
I take this stroll
With a mind open to expectations

A New Day's Choice

A New Day's Choice

Make the world a better place
          By choice

Do more than survive
          By choice

Be more than alive
          By choice

Cast down your fear, violence, spite, and hatred
          By choice

Take care of your ability to choose

Treat this ability as the powerful gift it is

Live this new day
          By choice

Measured by Choice

Measured by Choice

I was not born in self-deprecation
I trained in the words
I use to hurt myself

I was not born in naivety
I was simply born
In the blessing that is being born

To be of pure existence
Coming from nothing more than presence
To be and only be for the sake of only being

I was not born in hatred
I was not born in spite
I was not born in violence
I was not born in fear

I was taught these things
Living life for the sake of survival

Survival is of instinct
And yet remains a part of the most civilized
The most consistently controlled

We survive
I believe
To get back
To when our survival
Did not count
On the end of others

A life of choices made
A life of choices weighed
Against our measure from birth

I was not born measured
I grew into my measurement
And continue to grow through choices

Imperfectly Perfect Potential

Imperfectly Perfect Potential

When in your shrouded doubt
Look in me
For the light imperfect

For perfection
Cannot be you
Cannot be me
Cannot be anyone

Without perfection
We are free

Free to fall
Free to rise
Free to doubt
And free to believe

To believe
In ourselves
And in our futures unknown
Look to the lack of certainty
As the invitation to live

4d20 Disadvantage

4d20 Disadvantage

He decides it best to be in
The one place he has ever seen the target
The smell of salt, swaying minds, and greed
Fill his nostrils, failing to distract his trained eyes

Exactly upon the hour he predicted
The man with motivations paid in bribes
Enters the perilous pub
Looking for the next installment on his lack of honor

Following the unsuspecting and unaware
Is the rogue's specialty
He follows the target all the way
Back to the central barracks

He can assume that a small army
And a fortress fortified
Stand between him
And this righteous kill

He can find no secret entrance
No way in without being seen
And while searching for his opening
He hears the voices nearby
          of the armored foes that have spotted him

His story continues...