The emerald and azure banners cast tinted shadows on the crystal field
Ice shimmering under sharpened blades
On one end an angel is locked in a cage
With the world on his shoulders
In the other a devil, smirk scrawled in scars across his face
Ursine claws firmly entrenched in the artificial December at his feet
As the warriors begin to dance
They spiral around each other in kinetic grace
A ballet of equal and opposite reaction
The orchestra crescendos to match the swell of impact
And the angel falters beneath his burden
Atlas shrugging beneath the gravity that binds him
And with that the world collapses
The rictus opposite him widens
Visible beneath a vicious veneer from that virtuous vantage
As the ballet continues
It undergoes metamorphosis, quickly becoming a death waltz
And as the curtains descend
And the tinted shadows once again mask the hollow faces of the forlorn faithful
The sighing soldiers are serenaded by a symphony of silence
And in our privates abodes
We see the streets, aflame in the ignominy of failure and violent heartbreak of desperate youth
And we raise our glasses in our perennial mantra
That from the flames will come a phoenix
The redemption of an angel and his collection of broken soldiers
We raise our glasses
To next year
Cheers
