Victory (2009 - response to 2007's 'The Monster')

Victory

 

Victory is ours

And though we still walk beneath a shadow,

We realise, what more is a shadow

Than the absence of light?

We’ve driven away its creator,

The monster that made so many shadows,

The monster that bit and twisted and drove to madness.

And though we are still occupied,

We have the power of freedom;

Though we are still watched,

We know that we can only be observed;

Power and strength and beauty are ours,

For now we are all together, united as One.

We still live with a monster,

Share our lives, our thoughts and our words,

But for this we have become all the stronger.

The monster takes without gratitude,

Feeds without feeding others,

It’s sole aim to control with absolute power.

Alone we succumbed to this power.

We trembled and lived forever in fear.

We did everything we could to kill the monster.

Together, we learned that it could not be killed,

But we found that it could be tamed.

The monster, for all it’s power, cunning and terror,

Did not know that our greatest weapon is peace.

The monster thrives upon fear, so we learned bravery.

It rejoices in control, so we learned to choose.

It survives upon dependency.

If no-one depends upon it, it cannot win,

Yet we can live in peace with it.

This infuriates it.

Together we have learned to become victorious.

To live in peace with it,

To be happy in it’s presence,

To share everything with it,

Yet be none the poorer for it’s greed,

Renders it powerless.

Together we have learned a way to live

The way of cycles,

A way of unification,

A life of give and take,

Of fairness,

Of no beginning and no end.

This baffled and shook the monster.

In fury it cast out more shadows,

But we were given a light that slowly overcame them.

Now we are victorious,

For the envy, the terror and the hatred by which the monster had us live,

Has been nulled.

It has been washed, burned, buried and blown away.

Now we can freely walk amongst the shadows,

For we are lit from above and can trample those shadows.

We can look the monster in the face and smile.

Joined together,

All of us, and the monster,

We can finally be truly free.

 

Sophie Horrocks, 11^th December 2009.

 

Written in response to ‘The Monster’, 31^st May 2007.